Amish Are a Society Essay

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As societies have existed for billions of years, it is commonly asked, what makes a society? A society can be a group of people that share common traditions, activities and interests. The members of the society can be a part of a community, nation, or even a cyber-society. With that being said the Amish are a society. “The Amish focuses on the similarities as well as the differences found among the various communities” (Nolt, 2013). There are several different orders within the Amish community; the largest of these communities are the Old Order Amish, New Order Amish, Andy Weaver Amish, Beachy Amish, and Swartzentruber Amish. Within these orders there are specific rules and regulations that make each Amish order unique, but generally speaking all the communities prior mentioned have similar beliefs, clothing and grooming standards, and forbid the use of television and radio. All Amish Communities believe in Jesus Christ, heaven and hell, the bible which the Amish see as the word of god, and communion which is practiced twice a year. The Amish also have their own language which is based upon the German and English language; they call this language Pennsylvania Dutch. Old Order Amish have been around since the 1800’s, and descended from the Anabaptist-Mennonite followers of Jacob Amman. The Old Order Amish is the typical concept that the world has when they think of the Amish. The Old Order is conservative in how strict they adhere to beliefs of forbidding ownership of automobiles and how traditional they dress.
New Order Amish are a subgrouping of Old Order Amish as they split away from the Old Order church in the 1960’s. In this order, they desire clean youth standards, meaning no tobacco, alcohol, or non-sexually lying in bed together, during courtship. Some New Order Amish communities permit electricity as well as telephones within the homes.
Andy Weaver Amish are another order of Amish that split from their original order in 1952 because they did not agree with their churches stand on shunning. In the Andy Weaver order they are more liberal with consumption of tobacco and alcohol, not allowed to have automobiles at their home, and very strict with the shunning of individuals in their communities.
Beachy Amish split from the Old Order Amish in 1927, led by Bishop Moses M. Beachy. Different congregations within the Beachy Amish order will allow different rules for instance; most congregations within this order will permit the use of internet as long as it is filtered to what is available to be viewed. Beachy Amish also the ownership of automobiles and insist that the men wear ready-made clothing.
Swartzentruber Amish are the most conservative Amish; they are a sect of the Old Order Amish which formed in 1917 by Bishop Sam Yoder. Swartzentruber Amish are identified very easily as they only wear dark colors like navy, dark burgundy, or gray. Men within this order wear only a single suspender to hold up their pants and the women’s dresses reach the top of their shoes.
There are several jobs in the Amish society, “A person was less an individual and more a member of a family. Each member of the family had a job, a position, a status.” (Igou, 2010) In the Amish society, the contribution that an individual puts in is the pay for the work they do, for example the cows have to milked and fed daily so the family will have food and shelter. A typical setup for an Amish family as far as roles are concerned would be the husband would work on the farm and is the head of household, any male children would accompany the father to help out as well as learn vital information about life. The wife would do anything pertaining to cooking and cleaning, also the daughter would stay with the mother learning and helping out chores. This
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