Volleyball is a favorite activity at family gatherings.
2. Compact. The Amish have resisted the modern tendency to specialize and separate social functions. Unlike many forms of religion in modern society, Amish faith is not partitioned off from other activities. Work, play, child rearing, education, and worship, for the most part, are neither highly specialized nor separated from one another. The same circle of people interacting in family, neighborhood, church, and work blends these functions together in a compact network of social ties. Members of these overlapping circles share common values. Social relations are multiplex, meaning an actor relates to another person in many different functions: as a relative, neighbor, co-worker, and church member. The dense webs of social interaction minimize privacy. Gossip, ridicule, and small talk become informal means of social control as networks crisscross, so that as one member observed, “Everybody knows everything about everyone else.” Indeed, in the words of another member, “The Amish grapevine is faster than the Internet.”
If modernity separates through specialization and mobility, it is not surprising to hear Amish pleas for social integration—for “togetherness,” “unity,” and a “common mind.” On one occasion, the bishops admonished teenagers to stay home more on weekends and urged parents to have morning worship with their families as “a good way of staying together.” A young woman explained why the church frowns on central heating systems: “A space heater in the kitchen keeps the family together. Heating all the rooms would lead to everyone going off to their own rooms.” Another member described the compact structure of Amish society this way: “What is more Scriptural than the closely-knit Christian community, living together, working together, worshiping together, with its own church and own schools? Here the members know each other, work with and care for each other, every day of the week.”32
3. Local. Amish life is staged in a local arena. Largely cut off from mass communication, rapid transit, geographical mobility, and the World Wide Web, Amish life revolves around the immediate neighborhood. Business-people are somewhat conversant about national affairs, but the dominant orientation is local, not cosmopolitan. Things close by are known, understood, and esteemed. Typical phrases in Amish writings—“home rule,” “home community,” “local home standards”—anchor the entire social system in the local church district. The local base of Amish interaction is poignantly described in an Amish view of education: “The one-room, one-teacher, community school near the child’s home is the best possible type of elementary school. Here the boys and girls of a local community grow up and become neighbors among each other.”33
4. Informal. With few contractual and formal relationships, Amish life is fused by informal ties anchored in family networks, common traditions, uniform symbols, and a shared mistrust of the outside world. The informality of Amish society expresses itself in many ways. Social interaction is conducted on a first-name basis without titles. Oral communication takes precedence over written. Few written records are kept of the meetings of ordained leaders. Organizational procedures are dictated by oral tradition, not policy manuals and flow charts. Although each bishop wields considerable influence, the congregations across the settlement are loosely coupled together by family networks rather than formal policies.
Burials take place in local family cemeteries marked with equal-size tombstones. The small stones in the foreground mark the graves of children.
5. Homogeneous. The conventional marks of social class—education, income, and occupation—have less impact in Amish society. Ending school at eighth grade homogenizes educational achievement; and in the past, the traditional vocation of farming leveled the occupational structure. Some Amish own several farms and display discreet traces of wealth in their choice of farm equipment and animals. In recent years, business owners and artisans have emerged as new occupational groupings. Similar occupational pursuits in bygone years minimized financial differences, but that is beginning to change with the rise of Amish businesses. Today farms are typically valued at over $500,000, and it is not uncommon for an Amish business to have annual sales exceeding $2 million. The recent changes seriously threaten the historic patterns of equality.
The financial resources of farm and shop owners often exceed that of shop workers, who toil for hourly wages. High land values and productive businesses are disturbing the egalitarian nature of Amish society. One member, describing a certain rural road, said: “Three Amish millionaires live up there, but they don’t drive around in Cadillacs, own a summer home at the bay, or have a yacht.” Although wealth in Amish society is not displayed conspicuously, the recent changes have generated a social class of entrepreneurs with considerable money. Despite growing inequality, there is at least an attempt to maintain common symbols of faith and ethnicity on the surface. A well-to-do businessman and farm laborer dress alike, drive a horse to church, and will be buried in identical Amish-made coffins.
On the whole, the structure of Amish society is relatively flat, compared to the hierarchical class structure of postindustrial societies. There are few examples of extreme wealth and virtually no poverty in Amish society. In all of these ways, Amish architecture displays an elegant simplicity—small, compact, local, informal, and homogeneous—a simplicity that embodies Gelassenheit and partially explains the riddle of Amish survival.
CHAPTER 5
Rites of Redemption and Purification
Shunning works a little bit like an electric fence around a pasture.
—former Amishman
RITUAL: THE MUSIC OF INTERACTION
Social life balances on a tripod of culture, structure, and ritual. In order to survive, societies must develop cultural blueprints—collective guidelines that translate values and beliefs into expectations for social behavior. The social architecture, the organizational structure of a society, reflects the values in its cultural blueprint. However, culture and structure are lifeless forms until they are energized by social interaction. Chapters 3 and 4 examined the cultural blueprint and the social architecture, respectively, of Amish society. This chapter explores the patterns of social interaction and the religious rituals that energize and reaffirm the moral order of Amish life.
Religious rituals fuse culture and structure into social music. Without ritual, a group’s culture and structure are static—like an orchestra frozen on stage. For example, culture exists in the minds of the musicians; the players understand the musical notations and they know how to play their instruments. Structure is present on the stage as well. Arranged carefully in their proper sections, the musicians face the conductor. But there is no ritual, no interaction, no music until the conductor’s baton signals the start of the performance—the ritualized interaction. Cultural knowledge and social architecture suddenly blend into music. In a similar fashion, the rituals of interaction combine culture and structure into a social symphony in Amish life.
Social interaction in American society is organized by rituals ranging from handshakes and greetings to graduations and funerals. Religious rites rejuvenate the moral order of a group and place its members in contact with divine power. Amish rituals are not hollow. From common meals to singing, from silent prayer to excommunication, the rites are filled with redemptive meanings. As sacred rituals, they retell holy stories, recharge group solidarity, and usher individuals into divine presence.
The rituals of Amish life have two striking features: their oral character and their predictable formulas. The orality of Amish culture stands in contrast to the written documents of modern life. Collective memory is a powerful organizer and transmitter of Amish values. Hymns do not have musical notations, and neither sermons nor church rules are written down. The tradition is embodied in the people and their stories. This gives the ethos of the community an organic character that is informal, nonrational, and flexible.1
On the other hand, the ritual sequence of events is fairly firm. From weddings to funerals, from baptisms to ordinations, the ritual pattern is fixed. Individua
ls cannot tinker with ritual recipes. In fact, the protocol for Amish weddings is so clear that a wedding rehearsal is not required. There is one way to be baptized, one way to be married, and one way to be buried—the Amish way. The rigidity of the ritual eliminates any individual choice and makes the ceremonial life of the community highly predictable.2
ORDNUNG: THE GRAMMAR OF ORDER
The Amish blueprint for expected behavior, called the Ordnung, regulates private, public, and ceremonial life. Ordnung does not translate easily into English. Sometimes rendered ‘ordinance’ or ‘discipline,’ the Ordnung is an ordering of the whole way of life—a code of conduct that the church maintains by tradition rather than by systematic rules.3 A member noted: “The order is not written down. The people just know it, that’s all.” Rather than a packet of rules to memorize, the Ordnung is the “understood” set of expectations for behavior. In the same way that the rules of grammar are learned by children, so the Ordnung, the grammar of order, is absorbed by Amish youth. The Ordnung evolved gradually over the decades as the church sought to strike a balance between tradition and change. Interpretation of the Ordnung varies somewhat from congregation to congregation.
A young minister describes the Ordnung as an “understanding.” He explained: “Having one understanding, getting together and discussing things and admonishing according to that understanding and punishing according to the understanding, getting principles built up on an even basis, you know, can be beneficial” (emphasis added). In some areas of life, the Ordnung is very explicit; for example, it prescribes that a woman’s hair should be parted in the center and that a man’s hair should be combed with bangs. Other facets of life, left to individual discretion within limits, include food preferences, job choice, style of house, place of residence, and hobbies. The Ordnung contains both prescriptions—you ought to wear a wide-brimmed hat—and proscriptions—you should not own a television.
Children learn the Ordnung from birth by observing adults and hearing them talk. Ordnung becomes the taken-for-granted reality—“the way things are” in the child’s mind. In the same way that non-Amish children learn that women, rather than men, wear lipstick and shave their legs, so Amish children learn the ways of the Ordnung. To the outsider, the Ordnung appears as a maze of legalistic rules. But to the child growing up in the world of the Ordnung, wearing an Amish hat or apron wherever one goes is just the normal thing to do. It is the way things are supposed to be, the way God intended them.
The Ordnung defines certain things as simply outside the Amish world. Asked whether an Amish person could be a real estate agent, a member replied: “Well, it’s just unheard of, a child wouldn’t even think of it.” All in all, the Ordnung represents the traditional interpretations—the rules, regulations, and standards—of what it means to be Amish. Although children are taught to follow the Ordnung from birth, it is not until baptism that they make a personal vow to uphold it forever.4
Core understandings of the Ordnung regarding education, divorce, cars, and so forth are fairly stable and need little verbal reinforcement. One woman said, “We’re not supposed to wear makeup, but it’s something the bishops don’t need to mention. I don’t even think they know about makeup. They wouldn’t really know how to talk about it.” The outer edges of Ordnung evolve, however, as the church faces new issues. Some technological innovations, such as calculators, are permitted by default; but others, such as embryo transplants in dairy cows, are strictly forbidden. Other issues, such as installing phones in Amish shops, may fester for many years. When a new practice such as eating in restaurants or using the Internet becomes “an issue,” it is discussed by the ordained leaders, and if a consensus develops, it becomes grafted into the Ordnung.
Two Amish teens rollerblade in front of their home. The Ordnung regulates dress, technology, and the decor of homes.
The Amish are reluctant to change their mind after a practice becomes ingrained into the Ordnung. Rather than overturn old practices, they often develop ingenious ways to bypass them. For example, freezers are not permitted in Amish homes because they would bring other electrical appliances, but members are permitted to own one in the home of a non-Amish neighbor. Because changing the Ordnung is difficult, the Amish are slow to outlaw things at first sight. If seen as harmless, a new practice—for example, the use of barbecue grills or trampolines—will drift into use with little ruckus.
Adherence to the Ordnung varies among families and church districts. Some bishops are more lenient than others in their enforcement of it. If a member conforms to the symbolic markers of the Ordnung, there is considerable “breathing space” in which to maneuver and still appear Amish. The Ordnung is enforced with leniency under special circumstances. A retarded child may be permitted to have a bicycle, which is usually off-limits, or a family may be permitted to use electricity in their home to operate medical equipment for an invalid. Although self-propelled riding equipment such as a riding lawn mower is forbidden, electric wheel chairs are widely used by the disabled.
Examples of Practices Prescribed by the Ordnung:
color and style of clothing
hat styles for men
order of the worship service
kneeling for prayer in worship
marriage within the church
use of horses for fieldwork
use of Pennsylvania German
steel wheels on machinery
Examples of Practices Prohibited by the Ordnung:
air transportation
central heating in homes
divorce
electricity from public power lines
entering military service
filing a lawsuit
jewelry, including wedding rings and wrist watches
joining worldly (public) organizations
owning computers, televisions, radios
owning and operating an automobile
pipeline milking equipment
using tractors for fieldwork
wall-to-wall carpeting
A maze of rules to the outsider, the Ordnung feels like stuffy legalism even to some Amish, but for most of them it is a sacred order that unites the church and separates it from worldly society. In the words of one minister, “A respected Ordnung generates peace, love, contentment, equality, and unity.... It creates a desire for togetherness and fellowship. It binds marriages, it strengthens family ties, to live together, to work together, to worship together, and to commune secluded from the world.”5
All things considered, there are several levels of piety in the moral order of Amish society:
1. Acceptable behavior—so widely practiced that it’s never discussed;
2. Esteemed behavior—expected of ordained leaders and their spouses, but not of laymembers;
3. Frowned upon behavior—discouraged by the church but not a test of membership;
4. Forbidden behavior—proscribed by the Ordnung and a test of membership.
A fifth category involves behavior that is so immoral—for example, murder—and is so clearly wrong that it is not even included in the Ordnung. Indeed, in a sixth category are ambiguous practices that are acceptable in some districts but not in others. These levels of piety vary somewhat across the settlement from plainer to higher districts. The exact guidelines change over the years as the normative order flexes with new issues and new leaders.
Following the Ordnung—wearing proper clothing, plowing with horses, shunning publicity, avoiding worldly pleasures, and singing the hymns of the Ausbund—is a sacred ritual that symbolizes faithful obedience to the vows of baptism, the order of the community, and the will of God. Abandoning self and bending to the collective wisdom provide divine blessing and the promise of eternal life.
BAPTISM: THE PERMANENT VOW
Small children accept and practice the Ordnung as they receive it from their parents. Before they are baptized, Amish youth are under the care of their parents, and the church has no official jurisdiction over them. Some Amish teenage
rs conform to the Ordnung and others do not. Some rebel or “sow wild oats” during rumspringa—the “running around” years that begin at age sixteen. During this ambiguous stage, when they are neither in nor out of the church, teenagers face the most important decision of their lives: Will I join the church? It is not a trivial matter. Those who kneel for baptism must submit to the Ordnung for the rest of their lives. If their obedience to the church falters, they will be ostracized forever. Young adults who decline baptism eventually drift away from the community. However, they will not be shunned, because they have not made a baptismal pledge. As good Anabaptists, the church takes the importance and integrity of adult baptism very seriously.
Romantic ties may add an incentive for church membership, for Amish ministers only marry church members. “We have no weddings for someone who is not a member of the church. It’s as simple as that,” said one young husband. For many young people, the rite of baptism is the natural climax of a process of socialization that funnels them toward the church. For others, it is a difficult choice. Some leave home and flirt with the world, while others flirt with it behind their parents’ backs. But in the end, nine out of ten youths promise to embrace their birthright community for life. A young married husband described the tug of romance, land, family, and community that pulls young people toward baptism:
Most of the young sowing wild oats are just out there to put on a show. It’s just something that kind of comes and goes. If they have well-established roots, most of them kind of have their mind set on a particular girl. There is something that really draws them back.... Like I say, the close family ties are the thing that really draws you back. I still think it [Amish life] is a better lifestyle, I really think so. If you grow up with it, there really is something here that just kind of draws. If you do a lot of this running around and going on, it kind of makes you feel foolish after awhile.
The Riddle of Amish Culture Page 13
