Anthropology - Final Research Paper

The Life of the Amish

Angela Krantz

ANT 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Professor Michael King

November 10, 2012

There are enormous amounts of intriguing information that I have discovered through my research to be discussed when speaking of the life of The Amish. I wish that I could discuss them all. However, because of the wealth of information that I have found I have narrowed those things down that I will be discussing. These things will include The Amish’s primary mode of subsistence and the impact that their primary mode of subsistence has on their beliefs and values, their economic organization, and social change.

The Amish primary mode of subsistence is Agrarian. An Agrarian community is a farming community in a rural area. Their farms are known for their fertility and productiveness. They do not have the expense of maintaining automobiles and high cost machinery. Their success in agriculture is a product of combining hard work with careful management (Prof. Talaat I. Farag, 2005, para. 4) To the Amish, growing their own food, toiling with the soil, and raising their own livestock is seen as cooperating with God’s will. Living off nature and the environment is a form of communing with God to the Amish. The Amish believe that farming is not just a job, but a sacred lifestyle that are followed by the scriptures of the Bible and are handed down to the next generations (copyright, 2007-2012, welcometolancastercounty.com)

The Agrarian state impacts the Amish’s beliefs and values in many different ways. As I stated above, it is a sacred lifestyle for them because they follow the scriptures of the Bible and are living by God’s will, which is to live off of the land. However, in current times the Agrarian lifestyle of the Amish is becoming to be not enough to survive on.

For three hundred years the Amish have depended on their Agrarian ways, since their European Origin. Their Agrarian ways has bestowed stability on the church, made...