Cultural Research Paper of the Amish

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Cultural Research Paper of the Amish Carmen Rivera ANT 101 Instructor: Geoff Wood June 25, 2012 TheAmish The Amish Culture has a very different lifestyle. They have a very strict religious beliefs and values are what they live by. The Amish Culture has changed very little over the last five hundred years. The Amish, who are members of an especially reclusive religious denomination, still speak German, reject modern conveniences, and retain the dress and way of life of the Pennsylvania German farmers of centuries ago. (Library of Congress) The common impression that the Amish never change is false. They have stubbornly resisted some aspects of modernization, but in many ways they are quite up-to-date. Squeezed by the pressures of progress, they have been forced to strike some deals in order to survive. Although their cultural compromises may appear odd, they are often ingenious arrangements that enable the Amish to retain their distinctive identity and also thrive economically. These negotiated cultural compromises allow them to have their cake and eat it too, so to speak— to protect their traditions while using the benefits of modern technology. (Kraybill, Donald B.. Riddle of Amish Culture (Revised Edition).Baltimore, MD, USA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. p 22.) Amish culture and religion stresses separation from the world. Galvanized by European persecution and sanctioned by scripture, the Amish divide the social world into two pathways: the straight, narrow way to life, and the broad, easy road to destruction. Amish life embodies the narrow way of self-denial. The larger social world symbolizes the broad road of vanity and vice. The term world, in Amish thinking, refers to the outside society and its values, vices, practices, and institutions. Media reports of greed, fraud, scandal, drugs, violence, divorce, and abuse confirm that

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