Amish America

Orange County, Indiana Amish reader photos

Cindy Seigle has shared some interesting photos of a conservative Amish settlement in southern Indiana.

In An Amish Patchwork, Meyers and Nolt explain that Orange County is home to two distinct Amish communities. 

The newer of the two groups is comprised of ultraconservative Swartzentruber-affiliated Amish from New York and Ohio who began settling in the area in 1994. 

 

The older of the two groups, which originated in other settlements in Indiana and Pennsylvania and is known as the Paoli group, is in many respects highly conservative as well.

Meyers and Nolt explain that both groups observe similar technological restrictions--very plain dress, buggies without storm fronts or lights, and very restricted use of 'Amish taxi' providers, for example.

 

But the groups are not identical, and in fact are unaffiliated with one another.  The authors explain the key difference:

'Yet in many ways unlike their tradition-minded Swartzentruber neighbors, the Paoli group has staunchly opposed older customs surrounding traditional courtship practices or adult smoking habits.' 

'The Paoli settlement is notable for this combination of intentional traditionalism and intentional reformism.  Their refusal to compromise on issues they deem important has led them to not affiliate with any other Amish settlements in the state.'

I am not sure which community Cindy's photos are from.

As the authors describe the two settlements as being adjacent to one another, the photos may very well be from both communities.

Click for more of Cindy Seigle's Orange County Amish photos.

Bringin' in the 'Backy

Over the past couple of weeks, the tobacco's been coming in across Lancaster County.

Tobacco production here shot up after restrictions were removed a few years ago.  Lancaster already had a tradition of cultivation, but with farmers now allowed to grow varieties such as burley and with quotas removed, more and more of it has been seen filling up the county's farmlands. 

Tobacco has been controversial among the Amish--Lancaster Amish have a tradition of growing it, though some refuse to do so.  New Order Amish reject tobacco use and cultivation.  Nolt and Meyers in An Amish Patchwork point out that the Parke County, Indiana settlement, which has close ties to Lancaster and an otherwise very similar Ordnung, conspicuously banned tobacco farming when the new community was formed in the early 1990's.

Nonetheless, despite criticism by some of their own, many Amish farmers continue to raise the beautiful yet frequently deadly leaves.

Dad grew up picking tobacco in Eastern North Carolina.  I recently had him along for some visits to Amish tobacco farmers. 

He enjoyed sharing what we jokingly referred to as 'tobacco war stories', ribbing some of the Amish farmers for doing it 'the easy way'--cutting all the leaves at once and inverting them on shocks in the field, as in this photo:

Turns out dad would strip the leaves one by one in the blazing heat over an 8-week period.  Then apparently a blazing oil oven contraption dried them in scorching heat as they hung in the tobacco barn.  He made it sound pretty tough, as dads are wont to do. 

The Amish take their time, hanging their shocks and stripping them over the cooler winter after they've dried naturally.

In any case, it's an interesting issue.  Some of the Amish speak out against cultivation as feeding a destructive habit while others continue to use and grow the stuff as their fathers and grandfathers did. 

As with many things in Amish America, the force of tradition often wins out over more modern currents of change.  And of course, with limited space for growing, economics plays its part--there's a reason tobacco is known as a cash crop.
 

Book Review: Tom Shachtman's Rumspringa

I winced when I saw the cover.  I was sure this book would be another lightweight voyeuristic Hollywood look at the Amish.

Yet Shachtman seems to reserve judgment and present the Amish even-handedly throughout Rumspringa:  To be or not to be Amish.  He seems to have a heart for the kids involved, presenting their tales with compassion and respect.         

At the same time, like a good documentarian, he largely avoids outright condemnation of the 'other side'.  Shachtman calls a spade a spade and gives the Amish culture its due, as when he points out the miniscule rates of divorce, unemployment, and substance abuse among Amish adults.

 

Thoughtful analysis

Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish is not just an 'Amish in the City'-like  freakshow peek into these kids' lives;  Shachtman attempts to analyze the myriad issues at work in the mind of an adolescent during Rumspringa by examining the cultural aspects of the Amish.

He shows how things like shunning, the reverence held for farming as a traditional occupation, formal education (or rather, lack of it), faith issues and a number of other subjects all play into the typical Amish youth's decision whether or not to join the church.

The voices of the kids and the concerned adults stand out above all...they could belong to any suburbanite mother-father-teen combination, as you listen to them voicing their concerns, moms worrying who their kids are running around with, teens trying to act 'cool' and fit in with peers.

I was pleasantly surprised by the work, and would recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning more about the background of the Amish as well.  Shachtman seems to have gotten his facts right, relying alot on scholarly sources as well as his own observations and interviews--you can tell he's done his homework.

 

In examining a touchy subject for the Amish, Shachtman chooses analysis over exposition, and readers gain as a result.  A lot deeper than what it's shock-value cover intimates, it's a book worth checking out.  And it is a page-turner--I knocked it out in three days.

Do the Amish drink?

Indiana has granted a permit for wine sales to a local hotel in Shipshewana (or just plain Ship-she), the tourist center of the northern Indiana Amish settlement.  Shipshe is a historically dry town.  Seems some residents are pretty upset. 

Some cite Amish traditions as a reason for keeping the town booze-free.

We might think that drinking is not a part of the culture, but Amish and alcohol can and do mix.  Most famously, it's Rumspringa-age youth, but in the decentralized Amish system, there is no across-the-board Mormon-like principle against consumption. 

So it would probably depend more on the community and custom, and of course individual preference.

New Order Amish are completely against it.  Alcohol, like tobacco and bed courtship, was one of the sticking points that caused them to split off in the 60's.  In the Old Order world it's not so clear-cut.

I once sat with an Amishman in central Indiana as he told me, with something akin to horror, of a settlement in another state where hard liquor was customary on greeting a visitor.  Sounds more like Polish custom now that I think about it.

I've noticed the odd bottle of hard stuff on Amish shelves a couple times;  I've bumped into a dad or two having a Saturday night brew.  Amish may have a celebratory drink at weddings.  Homemade spirits like wine or cider were perhaps more common in the past.

One writer in Hostetler's Amish Roots describes her father's long battle with alcoholism, and his eventual triumph over it, thanks in part to Alcoholics Anonymous.

But on the public stage, if not the private, the Amish really aren't that big on drinking.  As Donald Kraybill puts it in The Riddle of Amish Culture:  'Alcohol abuse, present among some youth, is practically nil among adults'.

Concerning the youth, some parents look the other way.  But others put time and effort trying to crack down on it. 

This  eye-opener of an article describes collaboration between the Amish and local law enforcement.  One case ends in a couple of nights in jail for a pair of cocky underage drinkers. 

When asked why he chose such a harsh approach, the judge involved replies that 'their elders want me to treat them like that'.


So Shipshewana may no longer be dry, but it's not likely to change much.

You'll still be a lot more likely to catch an Amish fella with a cold can of Dew, a piping-hot cup of coffee, or a tin of straight-from-the-udder raw milk, than a cool Bud.

Dust and nicotine

Changes in the tobacco industry--lower prices, declining demand, and a heightened stigma towards the trade--have had many small farmers reeling.   

Many people don't realize that more than a few Amish--especially those in Lancaster County and related settlements--have a long history of growing and using the product.

 

In this Washington Post article, southern Maryland farmers who refused a state-sponsored buyout--most of them Amish--have shifted to producing a higher-demand leaf common to Kentucky and Tennessee.

And in this piece for Wired, the Amish fill a niche market and earn nearly twice the market rate to boot, by growing a genetically-modified, lower nicotine strain.

Amish dating, Amish smoking: 'Old' and 'New' perspectives

'The typical English guy looks at one of us and just sees an Amish person.  Actually there can be a lot of difference.'

So said a Holmes County Amishman, commenting on the diversity in his area.

Compared to the Old Order Amish, the so-called New Order is a curious mix--one which we might term technologically more liberal, but in some ways culturally more conservative. 

The New Order, which formed in 1966, is similar in dress and transportation to the Old Order, wearing plain clothing and using the horse-and-buggy.

Many New Orders allow phones and even electricity in the home.  They also use tractors in the fields.  Typical Old Orders own tractors but park them by the barn and use the horsepower to fill the silo at harvest time. 


The New Order is adamantly against two practices seen among the Old Order:  bundling and tobacco.

Bundling is an Old World practice of bed courtship.  The dating pair lie fully clothed on the bed together.  Some might call that a recipe for temptation. 

This interesting wiki gives more detail, including some clever uses of a device known as the 'bundling board'. 

Tobacco use is seen in Lancaster County, where it has a long tradition as a cash crop, and in other settlements as well. 

Being anti-smoking is not necessarily being more conservative.  As John Hostetler points out in Amish Society, in some communities, quitting smoking may be taken as identifying with more liberal Mennonite groups.

Hostetler also points out that cigars and pipes are traditionally more acceptable than 'worldly' cigarettes.


Donald Kraybill explains the differences between these and other groups in The Amish Struggle with Modernity.

States where New Order settlements can be found include Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Montana.

Amish for Sale

'Amish' sells. 

Whether it's an overpriced bag of trail mix or a six-figure kitchen cabinet installation, people gravitate towards the implicit quality of anything with the Amish label. 

Exactly what does that label mean anyway?

Does tobacco grown in the general vicinity of Amish country count as 'Amish'?  What about an RV produced at a factory with Amish workers?  Does an Amish person actually have to make the product, or sell it, or just handle it at some point along the way?

'Amishness' is a bit of a mystery.  Just where does it come from?

There really is no regulatory body for this sort of thing.  Would be nice if there was.  Then the Amish could get rid of some of the freeriders. 

Truth be told, most Amish don't like explicitly promoting their products with their name.  But a lot of other people do.  Freeriders on the Amish name are all over the place in Amish Country.  The Amish find this slightly annoying.  But they live with it.  Suing is out of the question, and how could you do it, even if you wanted to?  There is no 'Amish' trademark.


It's still one heck of a brand, though. 

31 Flavors of Amish

Most Amish look alike to the man on the street. In reality the group is surprisingly diverse. Though tied by a set of core beliefs, the Amish have no national governing body, no pope nor patriarch. The individual congregation, guided by its bishop, decides its own rules and customs. This decentralized approach, along with a widely varying tolerance for progressive ideas, creates many different ‘flavors’ of Amish. Within the 1200-plus congregations in North America you will find:

• Amish that use cell phones and electricity, and Amish that forbid indoor plumbing, toilets, and hot water in the home.

• Amish that practice 'bundling'--fully-clothed bed courtship--and those that forbid it.

• Amish 'ballers'.  Basketball is a popular sport, as is softball.  One Indiana Amishman built an indoor gym onto the side of his shop.

• Amish that smoke cigarettes and cigars.  The majority don't use tobacco, and the practice is generally on the decline.

• Amish that vote.  Most avoid politics, but up to 10% do participate in elections, usually local.  George Bush felt they could potentially tip Ohio and Pennsylvania to his side in 2004, prompting some unusual meetings with Amish church members.

• Amish sports fans.  Members in one equidistant central Illinois community split between the Bears and the Rams.

• All Amish use buggies--except for those that don't. The 'Beachy Amish', a group that splintered off in the 1920's, have accepted cars and other modern innovations.  For this reason they are often considered closer to the more moderate Mennonite groups.

• Buggy paint jobs differ--besides the most common color, black, there are gray, brown, white, and even yellow-colored buggies.  Non-black buggies are usually found within the various Pennsylvania settlements.   

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Congregations differ on beard length, lawnmowers, airplane travel, church-houses, Game Boys, and a host of other issues.  It seems the 'plain people', in many ways, are not so plain after all.

Most Amish look alike to the man on the street. In reality the group is surprisingly diverse. Though tied by a set of core beliefs, the Amish have no national governing body, no pope nor patriarch. The individual congregation, guided by its bishop, decides its own rules and customs. This decentralized approach, along with a widely varying tolerance for progressive ideas, creates many different ‘flavors’ of Amish. Within the 1200-plus congregations in North America you will find:

• Amish that use cell phones and electricity, and Amish that forbid indoor plumbing, toilets, and hot water in the home.