An Amish Paradox

by Charles E. Hurst

  44. Information was obtained from the Web site of the North American Deer Farmers Association, www.nadefa.org/.

  45. See Dave Mast, “Deer Auction Draws Buyers from Around the Nation,” Wooster Weekly News, September 6, 2007, B1.

  46. Cited in Meghan Barr, “Hard-Hit Consumers Turn to Amish,” Associated Press, www.ar15armory.com/forums/Hard-hit-consumers-turn-t29910.html (accessed July 6, 2009).

  47. Hebert, “Progress”; Gray, “Local-Based.”

  48. Kraybill, “Plotting Social Change,” 64.

  49. Kraybill, “Plain Reservations.”

  50. The ad for the processor, from which these statements are drawn, appeared in the Sugarcreek (Ohio) Budget, November 28, 2007, 43, national edition.

  51. Kraybill, “The Amish Encounter with Modernity.”

  52. Byler, “The Geography of Difference,” 4.

  53. Although we have anecdotal evidence for wealth variations based on differences in the conditions of schools, individual ability to pay for health care, quality of housing, and similar measures, we do not have systematic data on family wealth and so cannot specify the nature of a hierarchy of wealth across the affiliations. However, we can speculate: to the extent that some affiliations as a whole are wealthier than others, in part because of differences in use of technology and range of occupations, marriages within affiliations may inadvertently reproduce class positions within the Amish community. This is a fascinating area for future research.

  54. Weber, The Protestant Ethic.

  55. See Chris Kick, “Maple Drink a Bone, Skin, Joint, Kidney Strengthener, People Say,” Wooster (Ohio) Daily Record, February 27, 2008, B4.

  56. Bob Downing, “Amish Adopt Solar Power at Home, Work,” Akron Beacon Journal, July 13, 2007.

  57. Ibid.

  58. “Amish Are Surprise Champions of Solar Technology,” available at the New Scientist Web site, www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007_06_01 _archive.html. Amish use of solar power is also discussed on the Green Energy Ohio Web site.

  Chapter 7. Health along the Life Cycle

  1. See, for example, Hostetler, Amish Society; and Huntington, “Health Care.”

  2. On culture care diversities and universalities, see George, “Theory of Culture Care”; and Wenger, “The Phenomenon of Care.”

  3. The concepts of “high-context” and “low-context” cultures were developed by Edward Hall in Beyond Culture (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1976). They have been applied to the Amish by, for example, Wenger, “The Phenomenon of Care”; and Hostetler, Amish Society.

  4. Data for 2005 are from the Center for Vital and Health Statistics of the Ohio Department of Health and from Ohio Families for Safe Birth, both located in Columbus, OH. The 1984 study, which included a face-to-face survey as well as a telephone survey of Amish families in Wayne County, was conducted to determine current usage of health care services and assess deficiencies in services, health care needs of the local Amish, and the extent to which preventive health care was carried out by the Amish. See Health Care Associates, Amish Questionnaire/Results.

  5. Hoover, House Calls, 202–3.

  6. See Huntington, “Health Care,” for a history of the Mount Eaton Center.

  7. The Miller case, which received national attention, pitted traditional Amish and midwifery advocates against the mainstream medical establishment. See the local articles “Before Hundreds of Supporters, Miller Says, ‘It’s about Their Freedom’”; and “Miller Jailed for Refusing to Name Drug Source,” Wooster (Ohio) Daily Record, March 12, 2002; October 24, 2002; and Wiker, “Mennonite Midwife behind Bars.”

  8. Ohio Amish Directory.

  9. Center for Vital and Health Statistics, “Vital Statistics.”

  10. Donnermeyer and Cooksey, “Demographic Foundations.”

  11. The information on Holmes County prenatal care is derived from a study by the Holmes County Health Department.

  12. See Huntington, “Health Care.” A 2006 study of middle-aged Amish women in Holmes County found that less than one-third had had a mammogram in the previous year. Reported in Chris Leonard, “Dr. Melissa Thomas Travels to Remote Places with the Mammo Van,” Wooster (Ohio) Daily Record, May 11, 2008, B6.

  13. The study of 1,108 individuals, 36 percent of whom were Amish, entitled “The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Study,” was conducted by Holleran Consulting for the Holmes County Health Department. The research also indicated that Amish women were less likely than others to have obtained a breast exam or pap smear within the past year, and Amish men were less likely than others to have been screened for prostate cancer in that period.

  14. “Pertussis Outbreak.”

  15. Lisa Belkin, “A Doctor for the Future,” New York Times Magazine, November 6, 2005, 70.

  16. Cheryl Powell, “New Fund to Aid Sick Amish Kids,” Akron Beacon Journal, July 6, 2005, A1.

  17. Van der Walt et al., “Maternal Lineages.”

  18. Cheryl Powell, “Amish Families Review Stance on Medicaid,” Akron Beacon Journal, July 6, 2005, A1.

  19. Hostetler, Amish Society.

  20. Bassett, Schneider, and Huntington, “Physical Activity.”

  21. We are grateful to Lawrence Greksa for this observation.

  22. Data are from the 2003 “Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey” conducted for the Holmes County Department of Health by Holleran Consulting. It should be pointed out that this study does not analyze differences between Amish affiliations, although such differences are known to exist. More conservative groups, such as the Swartzentrubers and the Andy Weavers, are more likely than New or Old Order Amish to smoke and use alcohol.

  23. Girod, “A Sustainable Medicine.”

  24. Miller, Our People, 6.

  25. Hoover, House Calls, 32–33.

  26. Von Gruenigen et al., “Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use,” 232.

  27. Although they are usually thought of as the same, a few Amish argue that brauche is very different from powwowing in that they associate the former with Christian words and the latter with witchcraft. For our purposes, we consider the two practices to be the same. An in-depth discussion of the nature and techniques of powwowing (brauche), along with examples of its usage and practitioners, can be found in Kriebel, Powwowing.

  28. Miller, “The Role of a Braucher-Chiropractor.”

  29. “Information Please,” Sugarcreek (Ohio) Budget, April 12, 1995, 25.

  30. See Cates, “Facing Away”; and Cates and Graham, “Psychological Assessment” for a fuller discussion of the cultural factors among the Amish that affect therapist-client relationships.

  31. Perhaps the best known of those who view mental illness as a social construction is Thomas Szasz, whose Myth of Mental Illness set forth the argument that mental illness is defined into existence by our interpretations of behavior. Diagnoses of mental illness appear to be affected by the cultural images and expectations that are placed on different categories of people such as minorities and women (see, for example, Institute of Medicine, Unequal Treatment; Kromm, “Feminization of Madness”).

  32. See the research by Loring and Powell, “Gender, Race, and DSM-III”; and Good et al., “The Culture of Medicine,” for illustrations of racial and gender biases in diagnoses.

  33. Fuchs et al., “Health Risk Factors.”

  34. DeRue, Schlegel, and Yoder, “Amish Needs.”

  35. Miller et al., “Health Status.”

  36. Hostetler, Amish Society.

  37. Reiling, “The ‘Simmie’ Side of Life.”

  38. Ibid.

  39. Amish Mental Health Committee, minutes of the meeting held at the Alvin Beachy residence, April 25, 1996, p. 3.

  40. Wenger, Depression.

  41. Hoffnung Heim Newsletter, May 2004, 6. Published in Dundee, Ohio, by Hoffnung Heim.

  42. Springhaven is another local Christian-based counseling center that works with Amish clients. About one-third of its clients are Amish. The work of its professional
social workers and counselors involves strategies based on both Christian beliefs and behavioral science.

  43. Amish Hospital Aid Committee, The Amish Hospital Aid Program (Sugarcreek, OH: Amish Hospital Aid Committee, 2003), 3. This is a pamphlet distributed to local church members explaining the eligibility rules and covered services of the program.

  44. Many announcements of this kind can be found in each issue of the Gemeinde Register, which is published biweekly by Gemeinde Register in Baltic, Ohio, for the Amish in Ohio. For the quoted entries, see Gemeinde Register, August 3, 2005; August 17, 2005; August 31, 2005.

  45. Powell, “Amish Families Review Stance,” A6.

  46. Weaver, My Grace, vi.

  47. The quotes that follow are drawn from Weaver, My Grace, 15, 238, 3, 403, 167, 97, and 435.

  48. Girod, “A Sustainable Medicine.”

  Chapter 8. Stepping Back and Looking Forward

  1. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “crucible”; Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus, s.v. “crucible.”

  2. Nolt and Meyers, Plain Diversity.

  3. James Thompson, in his classic analysis Organizations in Action, characterizes organizations as open systems tending toward closure. Organizations, especially businesses, use several techniques to seal off or control outside influences so that they can operate predictably and efficiently.

  4. Lehman and Nolt, Mennonites, Amish, 103.

  5. Granovetter, “Strength of Weak Ties,” 1373.

  6. See the study by Kraybill and Kopko, “Bush Fever.” Robert Putnam, in “Bowling Alone,” is among the most notable of those who are concerned about lack of social capital, declines in trust, and other trends moving us away from a civil society. James Coleman was also concerned with a decline in social trust that accompanies the high rates of mobility, heterogeneity, and corporate dominance in our society. See his “Social Capital”; and Foundations of Social Theory.

  7. Carroll, “Most Americans Approve.”

  8. Granovetter, in “Strength of Weak Ties,” discusses the nature and importance of weak ties with outside groups and their implications for integration and exclusivity in society. He sees such ties as significant avenues along which new ideas and other changes can travel. In the absence of weak ties between groups, dense networks foster fragmentation rather than integration.

  9. Erving Goffman’s Asylums analyzes the ways in which some institutions totally encapsulate the individuals and maintain total control over their lives with the goal of dismantling their old selves and creating new, more acceptable, ones that are consistent with the values of the institutions. He also examines the myriad ways by which individuals who want to maintain their personal integrity adjust to the pressures imposed by these institutions.

  10. “The Harris Poll’s ‘Alienation Index’ Rises Slightly to Highest Level in Presidency of George W. Bush,” Harris Poll #110, November 8, 2007, www.harrisin teractive.com.

  11. In Foundations of Social Theory, James Coleman argues that trust is nurtured best in small, homogeneous, tight-knit groups or communities with high amounts of social capital.

  12. Kraybill and Bowman, On the Backroad, 115–16.

  13. Giddens, “The Reflexivity of Modernity,” 423.

  14. Nolt and Meyers, in Plain Diversity, stress the importance of these ongoing conversations for the continued vigor and distinctiveness of the Amish community. Even when there is disagreement in arguments, there is agreement on the importance of what is being argued.

  15. Michael Hechter, in Principles of Group Solidarity, reviews the methods of controlling “free riding” by individuals in organizations and communities, that is, mechanisms used to ensure that members or citizens do their part and adhere to organizational or community rules.

  16. Ehrenhalt, The Lost City, 2.

  17. Kim Lawton, “Unemployment puts Churches in a Pinch,” Mennonite Weekly Review, May 4, 2009, 1; Joshua Boak, “Layoffs Are Driving Change among the Amish,” www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-amish20-2009apr20,0,5794881.story (accessed April 21, 2009); Associated Press, “Faith or Money: Indiana Amish face Uneasy Dilemma,” www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2009/05/11/statenews.qp-3620557.sto (accessed May 14, 2009).

  18. Tyler, “The State of Trust Today.”

  19. In The Risk Society, Ulrich Beck has described modern societies as “risk” societies because national borders no longer separate them from one another. Pollution and related environmental problems spread across the globe, their effects not distinguishing rich from poor or large from small societies.

  20. Pew Research Center, “Americans and Social Trust.”

  Appendix A. Methodology

  1. Nespor, Tangled Up in School.

  2. Reed-Donahay, Education and Identity in France, 37.

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