The Amish and Subsistence

Bianca M Foreman

ANT101

Instructor: Mark Bowles

September 30, 2012

The Amish and Subsistence

Introduction

The Amish are people who deviated from Mennonites during the 1600s due to differences over the enforcement of shunning, washing of feet and clothes. These devout individuals were led by Jakob Ammann and therefore came to be known simply as the “Amish”. They still bear close resemblance to the Mennonite's (Hostetler, 1993). The Amish in America originally arrived in the 1730s taking up William Penn's offer of religious tolerance. They initially settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania however they later also spread to New York, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri Ohio, and other states (Hostetler, 1993). Since the Amish generally do not like getting involved with other religious groups, they adopted a country lifestyle preferring to live on farms instead of towns. The Amish people are not interested in technology as they believe it will interfere with their life so instead they choose to remain focused on their family and farms.

Discussion

Identification

The Amish practice small scale farming. This is due to the reason that they believe big-scale leads to abuse of power and may lead to straying from their roots. (Kraybill et al, 2004). The Amish have been practicing small scale substance farming for the past 300 years since Anabaptist were first persecuted and took to the mountains' in Switzerland.

Although now the trend is slowly changing from agrarian focus to an enterprise focus, the most cherished occupation among the Amish is still farming. Family members come together to create an agricultural life style. All Amish household members begin at an early age to work on the farm and household chores. To keep their family unit intact, Amish determinately keep their farms small scale (Wittmer, 1970). The ideology is geared more towards keeping the farm productive and serving the needs of the community then getting high returns. Farms are kept small, between forty and hundred acres although it is not uncommon to find bigger farms in Midwestern areas. Sense of community serving is highlighted by the Amish farmer's decision to choose to grow variety of crops and raise livestock then earning high profits. The farms are also kept small due the limitations of family size and the Amish aversion to technology and most advancement in the agricultural field (Wittmer, 1970).

Lifestyle and Community of the Amish

Amish think that big family units are a blessing from above. The Amish people strictly believe in intermarriage within their circles, that is people who belong to the Amish Church (Kraybill et al, 2004). Their elders stay at home with the rest of the family instead of going to retirement facilities, which are looked upon with censure. They believe in the power of 'family units' and socialization, and live their whole lives in harmony with their neighbors, friends and even extended family (Kraybill et al, 2004). They are fiercely loyal towards their families and extremely protective of their communities. Amish people think that the way they raise their children as well as how many children each family ...