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| The Amish
The Amish
Handout:
23.6.1999
The
Amish
Origins:
- Anabaptist movement in the early 16th
century
- After 1536: They are called the "Mennonites", because
of the leadership of Menno Simons
- 1693 the Amish are founded by Jacob Amman
- Early 18th century: first amish settlers in
Pennsylvania
- Today live approximately 150 000 Amish people in 22
states of the USA and Ontario, Canada
- Best known amish community in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania.
Amish way of life:
- Completely secluded from the non-Amish world
- Plain lifestyle:
- Tractors and cars
are forbidden
- No telephones allowed, only commonly used pay-phones
- Electricity only from batteries
- Computers are forbidden
Originaldokument enthält an dieser Stelle eine Grafik!
Original document contains a graphic at this position!
very hard work
- Community as a family
- Amish rules of dressing:
- Women and
girls: long sleeves, full skirt, hair as a bun, bonnet
- Men and boys: dark suits, broad trousers with suspenders, beard, no
mustache
- Rules are written down in the "Ordnung"
- Amish school system
- Importance of the family
Vocabularies:
infant - Säugling
baptize - taufen
worship - Gottesdienst
seclude - absondern
plain - schlicht
sleeve - Ärmel
bun - (Haar-)Knoten
bonnet - Haube
mustache - Schnurrbart
The Amish
- Origin: Amish, religious group, who
have their roots from the anabaptist movement in Europe in the early
16th century
- In this time it was usual, that only
infants get baptized. But the Amish believed, that only Adults should be
baptized, because they can confess their belief. Infants can not choose , they
got baptized if they want or not.
- Because adult-baptism was forbidden,
they were persecuted and killed by Protestants and Catholics. => they had to
flee to the mountains of switzerland and the Alsace
- From this time on, they were called the
"Anabaptists"
- In 1536 a man, called Menno Simons,
joined the anabaptist-movement and became their leader. So the group was called
the "Mennonites"
- In 1693 the swiss bishop Jacob Amman
broke away from the mennonite church. His followers were called the
"Amish"
- The Amish and the Mennonites have still
the same beliefs concerning baptism and basic bible doctrines. But they differ
in their clothes, language and their form of worship
- In the early 18th century
the first Amish people settled to Pennsylvania. Today there live about 150000
Amish people in 22 States of the USA and in Ontario, Canada.
- The probably best known city is
Lancaster County, where about 18000 Amish people live
- In Europe, there are no Amish people
any more
- Amish can be categorized in two groups,
the New Order and the Old Order Amish:
The
New Order are not as strict as the Old Order. They are allowed to use
electricity and other many technological things. For the Old Order it is
forbidden.
- The Old Order Amish live completely
secluded from the non-Amish world. They have their own towns and communities,
where only amish people live.
- They live without electricity and other
modern things:
- Tractors for example are
only allowed on their farms for transportation,
but not on their fields. Cars are also
forbidden.
- They mustn`t have telephones at home. Only commonly
used pay-phones
are allowed
- They get their Electricity only from batteries, not
from the public utility
companies
- Computers are completely forbidden
Originaldokument enthält an dieser Stelle eine Grafik!
Original document contains a graphic at this position!
Because of this plain lifestyle they are called "Plain People"
- So they have to work very hard:
- work on fields is very hard, because
they have to do the whole work only
with the help of horses
- building houses and barns: without
cranes
- because no cars, they have to use buggies, that
are pulled by horses
- Buggies are typical for
Amish
- But without the help of their
neighbours and friends, life wasn`t possible for
them:
- If a barn burns for example, the
community helps to rebuild it.
(No Businesses who make it for them)
- If a person is ill, the neighbours make his work on the
fields
=> The community is like a big
family
- They have their own rules of
dressing:
- Women and girls have to wear
long sleeves and a full skirt.
They never cut their hair. They wear their hair as a
bun on the back of the
head
On the bun, they wear a bonnet, that is white if they
are married and black
if they are not married
- Men and boys have to wear dark suits, broad trousers
with suspenders,
black socks and shoes and a broad hat. After marriage,
they have to have
a beard, but no mustache
- All the rules are written down in the
"Ordnung"
- An other typical attribute for the
Amish is, that they worship at home and not at a church. They do this, because
they want to honor their forefathers, who had to worship in secret, because of
the persecution in Europe
- The Amish have their own schools. The
pupils have to go to school for only 8 years. They are taught humility,
quietness and shunning of technological things. It seems, that their
education isn`t, but in a test by the U.S. Office of Education the Amish pupils
were above the norm, when they were compared to non-Amish pupils.
- Amish children grow up bilingual, at
home they speak German and at school they learn English. After finishing school,
they learn to work on their farm and on the fields.
- Most important element in the life of
an Amish is the family
- They live
together in one community.
- Family-members are always in contact with each
other.
- They are also in contact with relatives who don`t live
in their community.
- The reason, why these people live like
that is, that they esteem the beliefs and way of life of their
ancestors.
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