Amish way of life
Isolated groups of Amish populations may have genetic disorders or other problems associated with closed communities.
Having children, raising them, and socialization with neighbors and relatives are important functions of family in the Amish culture.
Formal education ends after eighth grade, following which children are trained for their adult tasks.
The most common event for boy-girl association is the fortnightly Sunday evening sing; however, the youth use sewing bees, frolics, and weddings for other opportunities.
Respecting privacy, or at least pretending not to know, is a prevailing mode of behavior, even among parents.Weddings are held at any time of the year, though not generally in December–February.
She wears no makeup and will not receive an engagement or wedding ring because the Ordnung prohibits personal jewelry.
The use of tobacco (excluding cigarettes, which are considered "worldly") and moderate use of alcohol[9] are generally permitted, particularly among older and more conservative groups.
The Amish are aware of regional variation, and occasionally experience difficulty in understanding speakers from outside their own area.
A cape, which consists of a triangular piece of cloth, is usually worn, beginning around the teenage years, and pinned into the apron.
[12] A beard may serve the same symbolic function, in some Old Order Amish settings, as a wedding ring, and marks the passage into manhood.
The Amish claim that educating their children beyond eighth grade is a violation of their religious beliefs, and so, have been granted exemptions of this mandate.
Amish music is primarily German in origin, including ancient singing styles not found anywhere in Europe.
Older Amish hymns are monophonic, without meter, and feature drawn-out tones with slowly articulated ornamentation.
They are usually held in barns on a Sunday evening after a worship service and are an essential element in Amish courting practices as the young participants are encouraged to engage in social discourse between songs.
[17][18] Levi Shetler, of the conservative Swartzentruber Amish, was reported to have been involved in fourteen crashes by the age of 54, with one fatality.
High voltage electricity was rejected by 1920 through the actions of a strict bishop, as a reaction against more liberal Amish and to avoid a physical connection to the outside world.
[25] Although most Amish will not drive cars, they will hire drivers and vans, for example, for visiting family, weekly grocery shopping, or commuting to the workplace off the farm, though this too is subject to local regulation and variation.
[26] The Amish are permitted to travel by bus and train in order to shop, work at markets, and reach more distant destinations.
This allows the Amish to control their communication, and not have telephone calls invade their homes, but also to conduct business, as needed.
Amish children often follow in the tradition of being taught at an early age to work jobs in the home on the family's land or that of the community.
Contrary to popular belief, some of the Amish vote, and they have been courted by national parties as potential swing voters: while their pacifism and social conscience cause some of them to be drawn to left-of-center politics, their generally conservative outlook causes most to favor the right wing.
[32][33][34] They are nonresistant, and rarely defend themselves physically or even in court; in wartime, the Amish take conscientious objector status.
Their own folk history contains tales of heroic nonresistance, such as the insistence of Jacob Hochstetler (1704–1775) that his sons stop shooting at hostile Indians, who proceeded to kill some of the family and take others captive.
In 1961, the United States Internal Revenue Service announced that since the Amish refuse Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance, they do not need to pay these taxes.
[36] Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into, nor receive benefits from, United States Social Security, nor do their similarly exempt employees.
Internal Revenue Service form 4029 grants this exemption to members of a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950.
[39] At least one group of Amish farmers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has formed a cooperative engaged in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) agreements with non-Amish families.
[41][42][43] A 1988, made-for-TV film, A Stoning In Fulham County, is based on a true story involving one such incident, in which a six-month-old Amish girl was struck in the head by a rock and died from her injuries.
In 1997, Mary Kuepfer, a young Amish woman in Milverton, Ontario, Canada, was struck in the face by a beer bottle believed to have been thrown from a passing car.
Non-resistance has led violent perpetrators to take advantage of Amish as in the case of the West Nickel Mines School shooting.
