Amish Culture Vs American Culture

Every people group has different ways of functioning. Although the Amish may live in the same vicinity as the American population and could be classified as American they are very different. The Amish have adapted to a different way of life and they are not looking to update their lifestyle much like other people groups. The Amish have the perfect opportunity to advance their culture as they are in a highly advanced technology submersed culture. The Amish however choose to live a life of uniqueness and throughout this paper we will be looking at what defines the Amish and how they are set apart from the rest of society.

The Amish family has a slightly different structure than the typical American family. The average American family has around

Like many other churches, the Amish believe in rest on Sunday however they do take it to a level a little farther down the road. The Amish will still do basic tasks such as feeding animals but no business will be open and they will not do anything that corresponds with work of any sort (Growing). The church services include reading in both English and often times German. Churches usually take place in homes or a specific building known for the church, depending on the size. Once the church reaches a certain amount of people, they will divide it into a smaller group. Often times the ministers are untrained and do this as a side position. Churches include men in the roles of a bishop per church, 2 to 3 ministers and deacons for the church. Since church is a special occasion it takes place every other Sunday and can last anywhere from 2 and a half hours to 3 hours. The service itself includes singing, 2 sermons differing in lengths, Bible readings, prayer, and more singing. Communion services take place twice a year and includes a foot-washing ceremony, preaching, reviewing of Bible stories of Jesus’s life, death, and teachings, congregational affirmations of unity and communion using bread and wine. The communion services can last up to 8 hours and is a day of fellowship with other Amish believers. The Amish community believes in celebrating religious holidays however

For men they will typically take jobs that include agriculture, business owners, and other manual labor jobs. Young men will follow in their father’s footsteps as they usually are involved in agriculture, manual labor, or follow in the family business after they have completed their education. If a young man does not desire to be part of these jobs, he is also able to be an apprentice to learn a trade that may not run in his family. Young women tend to do jobs that are in the home however, young women can also have the job of a school teacher to the younger children in the Amish schooling system. Older women are full time mothers and wives however they are also usually required to earn some sort of income. Often times women will garden or quilt to sell items in the local market. For the Amish, they believe that working outside the community could be detrimental to them as it could expose them too much to the world (Katz). The Amish people are not constrained to one location, in fact they are spread throughout many different states in the United States of America as well as Canada. The Amish can be found in at least 28 different states ranging from Maine to Montana. The Amish are typically found in areas that have occupations that include farming and manual labor. The most popular locations for the Amish to stay is in the Midwest, however they do spread throughout other locations. Typically when talking about