Durkheimian Explanations of Key Aspects of Amish Culture

By: Kate McGonigal Introduction

This paper is the culmination of a semester spent exploring the essential elements of the old-order Amish culture. Since the Anabaptist movement sprang from the throes of the Protestant Reformation in 1527 there has been an outward movement of Amish settlers from Europe. Today on that continent there are no original surviving Amish societies. The Amish Community in the United States has developed since the initial immigration of Amish and Mennonites arrived on ships in 1683 from Palatinate and Alsace (Kraybill 7). The early migration waves pre-date the American Revolutionary War of 1776.

The Amish adhere strictly to the rules of social order as layed out in their religious code, the Ordnung. They also preserve their way of life by not accepting any modern piece of equipment for farm or home that might compromise the micro-interactions that nourish their day-to-day lives. The Amish social system has created a sustainable life for itself in the United States. This paper will use a Durkheimian theory perspective of organic functionalism to explain key aspects of the old-order Amish lifestyle.

In order to understand the social system of today's Amish it is necessary to understand their European roots reaching into the peasant cultures of the 16th to 18th centuries. Then the socialization processes of the culture will be explained through Durkheimian theory in the form of integrative and separatist mechanisms that constantly function to maintain the social order of the Amish culture.

Durkheimian Concepts of the Nature of the Social System

Emile Durkheim, a French organic functionalist, wrote at the turn of the 19th century primarily concerning himself with the changes in the nature of the modern society contrasting it with the order of traditional cultures. Through his classical sociological studies he was also attempting to create a particular method of empirical study by which a new science of human behavior, sociology, would be accepted into academia (Durkheim 1962).

The usefulness of his perspective today can be seen in the discussion of the social cohesion and maintenance of the social order within the Amish culture. He theorized that social facts are manifested independent of the individual, yet constraining upon any person. The society then has an existence of its own (Durkheim 1962: 59). Also the reality created by social facts is not an aggregate of those facts or parts, but a society that is sui generis, or of its own kind. Thus a new entity is created with its own patterns of behavior and rules regarding the nature of the social order (Durkheim 1962).

Durkheim also theorized that religion was indispensable to any society (Durkheim 1995). Religion is defined as:

"a unifed system of beliefs and practice relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden- beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them" (Durkheim 1995: 44).

Religion, for Durkheim, was seen as real and observable. Thus the Amish culture as a group can be empircally studied as their practices are relative to sacred objects, totems of the society (e.g. the Bible, the Ordnung), and they are united as one church through ritual practices even in everyday life (e.g. language, garb, baptismal vows). Foremost Durkheim believes that religion is social with "beliefs being collectively done, entering the real through the performance of rites" (xxxiv). As the collective force beomes an integral part of the community's being, uplifting and enlarging it, "we become capable of feelings and conduct of which we are incapable when left to our individual resources," (Durkheim 1995: 211-212).

The Amish culture is a religious collective re-enforced through the sacred nature of their totems and rituals. There is no part of the Amish lifestyle set apart from the other members of one's group. There is reliance upon interdependence through similarity and through the common religious bonds functioning to continually refresh and renew the energy of this society. The religious collective is an identifying characteristic of this traditional society that acts as a separating factor from modern society. Amish culture united through religious beliefs is not much different from the earlier European peasant groups primarily united through economic oppression. As I will further explain, in order to understand the lifestyles of today's Amish in America, it is important to know their European peasant roots.

Amish as a Modern Day Peasant Society

The nature of society in the medieval Europe was based upon the labors of the poorest of the poor, the peasants. Their labors enabled the monarchies and duchies of the continent to gain larger quantities of wealth and to establish colonies over the oceans. These peoples were dissimilar in peripheral aspects of their cultures, yet similar in the core qualities of their groups. First, there was no place or role for "stranger." Everyone must have a role that is legitimized by either familial relation or through a work occupation. Peasant societies share an agriculturally based history that coincides with the social conditions of the larger society. Such peoples also share the utilization of oral traditions via group-specific language in order to integrate new members and children into the group. Lastly, historically peasants were used as canon fodder by the dukes. Vassal peoples were put into a type of military servitude by those holding higher social and political positions of authority (Evans 17). At least in the Anabaptist tradition they refused to lift up the weapons of war and thus re-enforced the Ordnung not to commit violent acts upon other human beings.

Peasant societies were organized in a mechanistic sort of manner where there was interdependence through similarity. Occupationally people were similar and there were universal integrative processes for all group members. There were not "strangers". As there was no role for anyone not related by blood to group members and so few new adult members added, there was no position for non-family group members or non-occupationally aligned individuals. Peasant societies were, as the Amish are today, closed. They were self-reliant, self-sustaining groups dependent upon their adaptive capabilities to deal with internal and external strains. Functionally, to not adapt to social order changes within or outside of group was to become extinct. The social conditions of the 16th - 18th centuries in Europe forced peasants to live by the land and not by commerce and industry. These groups were re-enforced through the Ordnung codes to "be a farmer and live by the land" (Evans 17). French peasants' actions, described in the medieval period, are little different from Amish farmers of today:

In June, the peasants must cut and pile the hay and carry it. . . in August they must reap and carry in the grain. . . at Easter he must plough, and sow, and harrow. . . He must grind his corn and bake his bread. . . in November he must tend to the pigs to gather acorns in the forest, and gather in his own store of wood in the winter. . . at Christmas there is feasting (Evans 32).

Life in Medieval France explains that "the process of civilization often consists of substituting a conscious method for a half-conscious method" (Evans 104). In the mid-19th century, Europeans removed the cloak of traditional societies and chained themselves to a different type of social system with the commencement of industrialized society. Peasant societies changed and most populations migrated to more urban areas in order to better themselves economically. Choices were made for the peasants in Europe which originally relegated them to their agriculturally-based subsistence living, then they went to urban areas only to have their choices made again in the form of ghetto housing and factory life. Yet the American Amish society chooses consciously its choices and has lived with them long enough to function in a half-conscious manner while still consciously remembering why the beliefs were chosen in the first place.

Durkheimian theory would place the peasants as a group unified through practices and beliefs and providing the broader society with a source of extremely cheap labor. Peasants were deprived of their religious rights of freedom quite often and always in court decisions the Lords of the Manor were favored in contests over land usage and in depriving the poor of their winter fuel (Ducros, 148).

The Amish, as a modern peasant society, have adapted to such events by not initiating court cases, by maintaining a self-sustaining society where all needs are fulfilled within the community, and by not involving themselves with taxation issues or government elections. Thus to survive in modern America, the Amish have transcended the issues which plague the traditional peasant society while still engaging in the rituals, oral tradition, garb, and culture-specific language usage; and thereby have remained a closed society. Next, there will be a discussion of the processes of socialization within the Amish culture with an emphasis on the nature of integration and issues of separation.

Community Building through Socialization

In the Durkheimian method of sociological analysis, a traditional society creates community through similarity. The individuals of the group are socialized in such a way as to encourage universal habits and to create interdependence through "likeness". This lifestyle contrasts with modernity in that an identifying feature of the modern social system is social cohesion through differentiation. In other words, in modern society there are different types of roles and occupations integrated in such a way that they are all reliant upon the others for community survival. However, in the traditional or mechanistic society, similarity is stressed in the integrative processes of group members. Thus their similarity unites them as a community.

Socialization processes focus on integration for the Amish community members. From the work performed as a family unit on the farm to the Sunday worship service, all activities are meant to create and strengthen the bonds of the group. There is no such thing as a true Amish individual and certainly there are no Amish feminists. The macro-level integrative processes occur in the environs of the church district. The bishops and preachers make the decisions affecting the religious life of the community. Since the community is centered around their religious affiliation, these are extremely important decisions. Even relations of farm production are affected by the discussion of the church leaders who might decide that a particular type of tractor is allowed but another type is not.

The family is the basic unit of old-Amish society. The micro-level relationship between the husband and wife is the most singularly important bond of the community. It is their daily demonstration of adherence to the Ordnung and the continual process of adhering to the rigorous discipline required by their intentional religious community that maintains the social order within the Amish community. Parents are the first and most important teachers to children about the culture and about the acceptable patterns of behavior within the group.

Parents function as the primier carriers of the unit's belief system. Failure to pass on traditions to one's children spells out the demise of the entire culture. This has been a main emphasis of course readings this semester; for this very reason, whenever a child has not taken his or her baptismal vow, the parent questions what went wrong in the child's socialization processes. The parent questions what she or he could have done to create a stronger bond to the church or community by the child. Work and leading a productive lifestyle is a key theme in Amish homes.

Central to the social order are parents' teachings regarding the importance of staying away from the world and keeping busy through work. Hence in Rosanna, the little girl is taught to tend her garden and to tell a weed from a vegetable plant. She is even given by Momli her own vegetable seedlings to plant and maintain throughout the summer (Rosanna 47). The belief system is maintained through constant re-enforcement not only by one's parents but also by other adults, and in the Amish system this is chiefly accomplished by parents' involvement in their childrens' lives. In the Amish culture a child is raised through the effort of the community as well as parents and may be reprimanded by a non-related adult for misbehavior.

Mainstream American parents are much more likely to allow a child to play, to experience childhood without constraint. Amish parents believe a child must be taught personal responsibility and accountability in order to fulfill the needs of the group and to contribute for the benefit of the greater group interest. The individual in Amish society is subjugated for the greater good of the community.

Fraternity is an important segment of the Amish lifestyle (Tinder 1981: 106). Family relations are extremely important in maintaining social bonds. Social cohesion and unity is re-enforced through the peer pressure and social networks created through a closed community system. While consanguinity is a problem medically, it is a unifying social factor. One is less likely to remove one's family from the church supported by the extended family network. Community building through fraternal relations extends the power of parenting through socialization with other community members who believe in similar principles of order, norms, mores, and acceptability. The benefits of mutual aid in times of economic hardship and a resource in times of spiritual crisis are important in maintaining Amish church districts.

Practices of Integration

There are certain practices established by the Ordnung which precipitate community building through integrative processes. In order to achieve this traditional society based on "likeness", there are certain practices that are required by the Ordnung. Some of these practices are color and style of clothing, the color and style of buggies, the use of horses for field work, use of the German dialect, the order of the worship services, the menu of the congregational meal, and marriage only within the church (Kraybill 98). Now communities may operationalize these practices in different ways. Some communities allow different buggy covers than others, but overall Amish cultures share these practices set for by the Ordnung. Thus being a member means relentlessly subscribing to the religious and behavioral codes of the community.

Baptism usually occurs for the Amish during their late teens or early twenties. It is the practice of the individual conforming to the group identity and becoming a part of the community bound by the group belief system. A person must receive instructional classes before submitting to this public testament of binding oneself to the church (Krabill 100). Instructional classes held by church leaders during the singing segments of Sunday worship are a means of preserving the integrity of the belief system. There is a universalism of belief passed onto those who would be newly baptized members. The practice of baptism sets one apart from the world and binds one to the group whether joined by blood or not. Baptism is a ritual practice through which the beliefs of the traditional society are transformed into lifelong practice.

Two main objectives are served through the attendance at Sunday preaching services that cannot be satisfied from participation in other Amish integration activities. The first is the solidarity of the unit through the integration process as it focuses on the collective representation of the Amish culture. Secondly, the identification process as it is group-derived is naturalized through the Sunday worship service experience. The primary concern for the group interest is served foremost through attendance. It has been noted in our readings that whenever an individual has decided to leave the Amish church attendance at the Sunday preachings abruptly ends. Each Sunday worship service reiterates the cultural value of "Do not be conformed to this world."

Group-derived identity is extremely important in Amish culture. The Sunday worship service is a meeting where the individual members of the society come together as one body of believers united in their wish to be interdependent on each other, yet independent of worldly attributes. All personal characteristics are from the church settlement, the church district, or one's family. There is never sheer individualism in Amish culture. One is always a member of the society and bound by its inner conformist nature.

This identification with the group reflects the paramount concern for the overall group interest. Just as it is a goal of Amish to own their own farms and raise their families in order to maintain and promote a growing society, the identification of the group relies upon the identification process to keep Amish from being tempted by worldly interests. The integrative processes of church attendance and family work units function to maintain the traditional social order of Amish culture. These practices function to maintain group identity and reaffirm the collective interest of the religious community.

Separated from the World

Education which extends further than the 8th grade is seen as derisive of the group identity and symbolizes individualism beyond conventional Amish cultural bounds. Just as in Rosanna, as the young girl wanted to become a teacher early in her life, she learned that this was not accepted by church doctrine or by the legitimate leaders within the church. There are separatist practices maintaining the closed society of the Amish as there are the integrative practices earlier mentioned. By definition a voluntary segregated society has established practices which keep outsiders away and keep interaction with non-group members to a minimum.

For the old-order Amish separatist actions include: not using tractors for field work, not using electricity from public power lines, not filing lawsuits, not entering military service, not education children beyond the 8th grade and not divorcing one's spouse (Kraybill 98). There are practices within the Amish community which perform the function of keeping the members in-line with the prescribed religious code and practices of the Amish which keep outsiders and their modern contraptions at bay.

"If baptism is the entrance to Amish life, excommunication is the exit" (Kraybill 114). "Shunning" is the practice of "social quarantine" (Kraybill 115). "Baptism, Communion, and confession are redemptive modes of social control to keep folks in line with the Ordnung, but if that fails the Meidung ('shunning') is there like a silent deterrent. If a member violates the social norms of the church community then social interactions are strictly limited. Social confinement is done in order to keep the collective pure from contamination against the core belief system. There will be no eating or drinking with the individual 'put under the ban,' absolutely no social relations will occur between the shunned individual and society"(Kraybill 116).

For some Amish the experience of "shunning" is a short-lived process through which they come to understand that their individualism was wrong and then confess, thereby conforming to the collective practices. But for others "shunning" is a lifelong separation from loved ones and other church members. One church member analogized the excommunication process to rubbing against electric fence wire attached to a strong charger (Krabill 117). Breaking the baptismal vow has serious consequences for the individual, especially in a society where the community and relations within the community are given such a high priority. In the Durkheimian sense, "shunning" provides a strong functional incentive to conform to the ritualistic practices of the community.

Amish practice separatism by limiting interactions with non-Amish. Preferred clients are other Amish community members and the preferred occupation is farming. During the farming crises of the 1970s and 1980s, Amish farmers took their lunch pails and went to work for non-Amish in factories and on construction sites. Amish leaders felt the "Lunch Pail Threat" was detrimental to their society as this might leave a vacuum in the socialization of children. Their children might not want to lead agriculturally based lives and might not be inclined to join the Amish church (Krabill 193). An alternative was sought such that families could remain the basic unit of production and could keep living on farms. This resulted in a migration of Amish farmers to western states for more reasonably priced and available farmland (Krabill 195). Preservation of the agricultural system and maintaining close family ties through home businesses such as quilting and crafting has meant that Amish communities continue to flourish through their practices of separatism from the mainstream American society.

Conclusion

The Amish culture thrives in the United States despite its stereotype of being a backward agrarian society. Though similar to the medieval peasantry of Europe the Amish have made choices consciously in order to keep their society apart from modern America. Unlike a modern society, Amish individuals know their roles from cradle to grave. There is little uncertainty in their lives and this allows freedom within the constraints of their traditional society. Both their integrative and separatist practices serve not only to maintain their unique lifestyle, but also to identify individuals as community members who follow a strict code of religious behavior in order to pass on this belief system to their own children.