Book

Continuity and change among the Old Order Amish of Illinois

University Microfilms • Ann Arbor, Michigan • Published In 1987 • Pages:

By: Nagata, Judith A..

Abstract
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.
culture
Amish
HRAF PubDate
2019
Region
North America
Sub Region
Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
Document Type
Book
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
Gerald Reid ; 1988
Field Date
1965-1966
Notes
By Judith Ann Nagata
UM69-01398
Includes bibliographical references
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois, 1983
LCSH
Amish