Amish: Amish and Amish the Amish Essay examples

Submitted By kaitlynne1001
Words: 2315
Pages: 10

The Amish

The Amish culture revolves around their families, generations’ passes down farm lands, and the peace among their settlement community. This hard working culture believes in living by the soil and what was given to them by the land. In our day the modern world has taken us over, the Amish live a simple life, not because they have to, they allow their children to choose the Amish life style. When you think of an Amish family you think of a horse-drawn carriages and building all the families’ furniture by hand, you may also think of the men in long beards walking behind big draft horses to plow up the ground getting ready for planting season. However, Amish people have come a long way; some allow tractors, phones in shops, men to work in industries that are not Amish owned, and much more. The Amish originally called Europe “home”, however they are now extinct from their original home land. Today they are proud to call Canadian province Ontario and 22 other states in America home to over 200 settlements. This year marked 320 years for the Amish existence. The Amish are very focused on their family and the farm lands. Being so dependent on the land and each other is what makes the Amish culture considered as an Agrarian state society. According to Wikipedia.com the meaning of an Agrarian state Society is; “a society that depends on agriculture as its primary support and sustenance.” Agrarian society is the most common form of socioeconomics if the beginning of human history and records. The Amish being an Agrarian society is subject to many exchanges and living by trades. Amish also believe in marital exchanges; meaning they can exchange livestock or land for a marriage, to keep peace within the culture. Also with marital exchanges the Amish also believe in dowry, the movement of wealth that is given to the bride from her family, being in the form of land, livestock and much more. Despite the non-relationship started marriage, there is a very low divorce rate among the Amish. However, in some Amish communities divorce is either frowned upon or not honorable or it is illegal. Amish cultures are usually strict with the responsibilities and the roles of the different genders and age groups. The males are the head of the households, in the churches, and the leaders in the community. The title is an Amish community is always a male and is traced down through his family lines, this practice is call patriarchal. The women are not allowed to hold any type of leadership in the community or in church. They are however, allowed to be the school teachers for the children up until 8th grade. The duties at home can be shared among genders, however the men’s duty is to the crops, and the women’s is the garden and house work. The men in the families in some Amish cultures are allowed to work outside the communities and the women are allowed to make crafts and quilts to sell for an extra income. The women in the families are also allowed to run food store out of their homes to provide food for either the families in the culture that’s farm did not do well, or outside the culture for people wanting the natural home grown crops. The Amish church district is very important to their social organization; they are required to participate in the church they are districted in. The church districts are separated by different land marks like rivers. The each district can be anywhere between 25 to 35 families. Once the district starts to get larger than 35 families the district will divide and create two separate church districts. Each church district has at least four men sharing the leadership roles; one bishop, two preachers, and one deacon. The bishop is the elder leader that will hold baptisms, wedding, funerals, etc. Bishop, preacher, and the deacon church leadership roles are passed down the men’s family lines.
The immediate, extended, and church members are what make up the entire family building block for an Amish