Book
Continuity and change among the Old Order Amish of Illinois
University Microfilms • Ann Arbor, Michigan • Published In 1987 • Pages:
By: Nagata, Judith A..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The general aim of this study is to identify the sources, nature, and impact of the forces of social and cultural change in Old Order Amish society. The author approaches this problem by way of an in-depth study of the Old Order districts in 'Grainville', the pseudonym for an Amish and Mennonite community in the rich cash-grain area of east-central Illinois. According to Nagata, the main source of change lies in two interrelated processes: internal population growth and high land values resulting from competition for land between Amish and non-Amish farmers. The result of these processes is a growing scarcity of land which has its greatest impact on the Amish young people. In the past young people under such pressure were able to migrate to new farming areas. Nagata finds that now Amish young people are finding it increasingly difficult to carry on the traditional agricultural way of life; as a consequence they are forced to modify the traditional Amish lifestyle and to seek an ever greater accommodation with the non-Amish world around them. According to Nagata, this has led many of the young people and their families to defect to more progressive Mennonite sects or to abandon Mennonite society entirely. Nagata is also concerned with the problem of why the Old Order Amish are so persistently anachronistic in the face of mounting pressures from the outside for change. Her answer is that in some respects the anachronisms of the Old Order Amish are an illusion, a surface phenomenon hiding fundamental change and accommodation to the non-Amish world. She argues that as accommodation is made with the external world in the less visible and often more fundamental arenas of economic, social and religious life, the greater is the stress given to the more visible boundary-maintaining markers, such as clothing, that serve to differentiate them from the non-Amish society.
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Amish
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2019
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Gerald Reid ; 1988
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1965-1966
- NotesAdditional notes
- By Judith Ann Nagata
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois, 1983
- UM69-01398
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Amish