The Amish

by Donald B. Kraybill

  In a similar project, the Ohio Amish Library published English translations of Ausbund hymns to “help us understand more fully what is sung … [and] to understand the beliefs and sufferings of the writers.”15 Although these publishers argue that English translations will enhance the comprehension of German not erode it, the need for them suggests a declining competence in reading German in some Amish communities.16

  Preserving Identity

  Many Amish view English as the currency of high culture and worldly society, a language of sophistication at odds with the lowly spirit of Gelassenheit. To use English in prayers or religious services is considered worldly. Some leaders see the growing use of English and worry that some children are learning too much of it too early. One mother in a traditional group noted that her children sometimes speak English at home after they begin school. “Sometimes they do it [speak English] just for fun, but, if they do it regularly, we make them quit.”17 If the dialect dies, the folklore it encodes and carries will also vanish.

  “We don’t know what language Adam and Eve spoke nor what language is spoken in heaven,” one Amish leader notes. Still, he argues that “losing our mother tongue and drifting into the world usually go together.” He criticizes people who “think it is demeaning or beneath them to use German or speak Pennsylvania Dutch.” Anyone who speaks English at home, he argues, “is putting in a vote to drop a rich heritage … [one] that is so great that we can’t afford to lose it.”18

  The dialect fortifies Amish identity in several ways. It serves as a social adhesive to bind and unite the community into a world of its own. It creates an alternative worldview that reaches back to the religious roots and martyr past of Amish people. Reading the Bible, Martyrs Mirror, and other religious materials in the “original” tongue creates for them a conversation with their sacred history.

  The ethnic tongue also separates. Few Amish are ever completely at ease with English. There are moments of hesitation when they grope for an English term or stumble when pronouncing one. It is difficult to tease, dream, and communicate emotions in a foreign language. The dialect provides a prudent way of keeping the world at bay. It modulates interaction with outsiders and stifles intimate ties with non-Amish neighbors. In all these ways, the dialect creates a way of perceiving reality that obstructs the dialogue with modernity. Knowing that the dialect reflects their ethnic identity, the Amish have refused to concede it.

  The Garb of Identity and Belonging

  Distinctive dress is one yardstick by which to measure the symbolic and real social distance of any minority group from mainstream culture, and it is the most salient symbol of Amish identity.19 Without plain garb, an Amish person’s public ethnic identity would vanish. Even within Amish circles, dress reveals important clues to one’s status and compliance. If the central challenge of a collective society is ensuring individual commitment to the group, prescribed dress helps to accomplish that goal. It creates a cultural moat that encloses and separates, and it binds members of the community together and gives them a common identity. A clear countercultural symbol, plain dress rejects not only designer labels but also the values of consumer culture.

  With some age variations, Amish children typically dress like their parents. The style and color of shirt, vest, trousers, and hat of both father and son signify their conservative affiliation. Doyle Yoder

  We have argued that individualism is the deepest value separating Amish culture from mainstream society. Clothing is surely the most visible mark of that divide. Lipovetsky, in Empire of Fashion, contends that the ephemeral world of fashion, with its celebration of spectacle and superficiality, best typifies modern culture. In contemporary culture, dress expresses personal preference and social status. People use dress—styles, colors, logos, brand names—to articulate their individuality and manage how they present themselves to others. Self-adornment is a way to stand out, to be seen, to be recognized. Within Amish society, however, the individual relinquishes the right to use dress as a major tool of self-expression.

  Group-prescribed dress signals ethnic membership, submission to the moral order, and yielding of the self to the church. Members don the “company uniform,” so to speak, because they always are “on duty” as representatives of their community. Central to both self and group identity, plain garb is the articulation of loyalty and belonging. Dressed in distinctive garb, children learn to act, think, and feel Amish from their birth onward.

  Dress is not merely a tool of social control, however; it is a church tradition legitimated by prominent principles in the Bible. Amish elders contend that clothing should reflect the biblical values of humility, modesty, self-denial, simplicity, and separation from the world. Clothing, argues one writer, should be “neat, plain, simple, serviceable, and cover the body.”20 The Amish book 1001 Questions and Answers on the Christian Life devotes nine pages and forty-three questions and answers to dress—second only to the topic of heaven.21 Although Amish publications cite numerous Bible verses when making the case for modest and distinctive dress, clothing regulations usually are not tied to specific Scriptures but are simply accepted as “the way our people dress.”22

  An Amish writer, comparing church-prescribed dress to police uniforms, notes, “It is our duty to keep it [plain dress], just as it is a policeman’s duty to wear his uniform.”23 Another leader says, “We should not be ashamed to be identified with the church and God. Men of the world are not ashamed of the uniforms they wear … let us not be ashamed of our church’s Ordnung but voluntarily submit ourselves to it so that the world can see we are a separate and peculiar people.”24

  Amish dress performs a variety of social tasks: (1) it signals that a member has yielded to the collective order; (2) it prevents dress from being used for self-adornment; (3) it promotes equality; (4) it creates a common consciousness that bolsters group identity; (5) it encourages members to “act Amish”; (6) it projects a united public front, which conceals diversity in other areas; and (7) it erects symbolic boundaries around the group.

  What Dress Says to Insiders

  Dress speaks loudly inside Amish society because Amish people see a direct link between clothing and conviction, between outward appearance and inner piety. Dress is a barometer of Gelassenheit. It shows whether one is obedient or disobedient, humble or proud, modest or haughty, yielded or stubborn. One Amish publication notes, “It is a fact that religion in the heart has something to do with the form of the clothing.” Clothe your heart with humility, advises the author, and your body will give evidence.25

  For the Amish, all cosmetics and jewelry are taboo, including engagement and wedding rings, body rings, tattoos, and wristwatches. Pocket watches are acceptable for both men and women, however, and in some highly traditional groups men and women might wear copper rings, not as jewelry but as a folk remedy to treat arthritis. Women in all groups wear a head covering (Kapp), and all men grow beards, although when they begin varies by affiliation. In some groups men stop shaving after they are baptized, but in most groups marriage marks the point at which a man begins growing a beard. Men may not wear neckties, which are considered needless adornment. Men in most, but not all, affiliations wear suspenders. None wear belts.

  Dress provides subtle clues to an individual’s conformity to church standards. The width of a hat brim, the length of hair, the size of a head covering, the length of a skirt, and the color of shoes and stockings quietly signal a member’s compliance. Subtle variations announce whether one is liberal or conservative, showing off or obeying the church, “crowding the fence” or falling in line. Hair and dress styles indicate church loyalty. Speaking of men, a minister noted, “You can single your people out, your families out, which way they are leaning, by the cut of their hair.” “How a child is dressed,” said one woman, “gives away the mother’s heart.” The Amish believe that pleats, ruffles on sleeves, and bow ties at the elbows of young women’s dresses speak volumes about the home in which they are raised.

  To the o
utside eye, the Amish may appear to dress alike. Yet a closer glance reveals a mosaic of details that signal important meanings within the culture. The style and color of dress signify social distinctions linked to at least ten dimensions of Amish life: (1) gender, (2) age, (3) marital status, (4) compliance, (5) church membership, (6) social esteem, (7) religious rituals, (8) rites of passage, (9) sacred-profane boundaries, and (10) ethnic-public domains. These cultural patterns clarify roles, identities, and commitments in Amish society.

  Team Uniforms

  The Amish do not wear only black and white, as some stereotypes suggest, although it is true that most groups reject bright red, yellow, and orange, as well as any flashy color combinations. Colors common in Amish clothing include darker ones such as purple, blue, maroon, green, brown, and gray, as well as black and white. In more progressive groups, children’s clothes, especially girls’ dresses, are often pastels. Amish clothing is almost always made from solid-colored fabrics rather than prints or patterns. Nonetheless, each of the forty-plus Amish affiliations has its own distinctive styles and colors, sharpening team identities. Stephen Scott, in Why Do They Dress That Way?, found some three hundred differences in twenty items of clothing for men and women across fifteen communities.26

  Young Amish women observe a horse auction near Milverton, Ontario. Their dress indicates their church affiliation and their black Kapps announce their unmarried status. The distinctive garb also shows their separation from the non-Amish world. Mark Burr

  Worried that losing plain dress will lead to assimilation, one Amish man described how the “undressing” of the Amish might proceed: “It all comes one step at a time. First we can go without bonnets, then the corners come off the caps [head coverings], and then the strings, dresses gradually get shorter and tighter, caps a bit smaller, and somewhere along the line the cape is discarded. The apron, of course, has disappeared long before this. Soon the only place to take anything away from is the dress, bare arms, low necklines, tight bodices and short skirts. This may not all come in one year or in one generation … but the passing of the bonnet means big changes are coming.”27 Scott actually identifies nine steps along the pathway to mainstream fashions among midwestern Amish.28

  The daily acts of dressing are rites of Gelassenheit that signal yieldedness to God and the Ordnung of the church. While the clothing code may seem complicated and constraining, it frees Amish people from the burden of choice. Although some Amish youth press their mothers to buy just the right pastel color so that their shirts or dresses match their friends’ clothing, they spend less effort than mainstream teens sorting through their wardrobe each morning and shopping to stay abreast of current fads. They may appear to be obsessed with dress, but, ironically, they have fewer worries about clothing than do most Americans, whose dressing rituals signal obedience to the “Ordnung” of Madison Avenue. Moreover, Amish cultural tastes are regulated by the church, not by fashion designers or trendsetting celebrities. Conformity to ethnic dress standards not only unites them and marks their social turf, but it also frees them from incessant choice.

  The Hoofbeats of Tradition

  The Social Work of Horses

  What visual image could be more countercultural than a horse pulling a buggy through a thicket of traffic? The horse and buggy, prime symbols of Amish identity, protest key values of modern life: speed, power, and mobility. The horse on the road challenges the values embedded in the automobile, and the horse in the field questions the assumptions of high-tech agriculture. The typical Amish farm family has one or two driving horses and six to eight horses or mules for field work. Nonfarm families usually keep a horse or two and a pony in a small barn on their property.

  The horse became the default symbol of Amish life as cars became popular with other Americans in the early twentieth century. The horse embodies four key Amish values: tradition, limitation, nature, and sacrifice. First, it heralds the triumph of tradition and signals faithful continuity with the past. The horse offers tangible proof that the Amish have not sold out to the glamour and glitter of hypermodernity. A striking symbol of nonconformity, the horse separates the Amish from the modern world and anchors them in the past. To be content with horse-drawn travel is a sign of commitment to patience and the church. In this way, the horse approximates a sacred symbol.

  Second, the horse imposes limits on speed, size, and mobility. Plowing a field with horses takes longer than it does with a tractor; traveling by horse and buggy increases the time fivefold over traveling by car. A horse culture places other limits on social life as well. At best, on level roads, travel is confined to about thirty-five miles a day. By restricting mobility, the horse curtails the geographical size of a settlement and intensifies face-to-face interaction. In short, the horse builds social capital by keeping people together. Horses impose other curbs as well. Amish farmers must yield to nature’s clock because horses cannot be used in the fields at night. Using horses or mules for field work slows the pace of work and restricts the number of acres a family can till. Modern farmers with megatractors can cultivate a thousand acres, whereas the typical Amish farmer has fewer than fifty tillable acres. The horse limits the expansionist tendencies of modernity and tempers the pace of Amish life.

  Third, the horse preserves a link with nature in the midst of America’s high-tech environment. By living close to nature, Amish people believe they come closer to God as they experience the rhythms of the changing seasons and the daily struggle with unpredictable weather. Horse care—birth, death, illness, grazing, excrement, and unpredictable temperaments—brings daily contact with nature. The horse also tethers the Amish to nature by keeping them out of cities. For those Amish working in shops and factories, the horse preserves a critical bond with nature.

  Fourth, dependence on the horse requires daily sacrifice, a cogent reminder that identity and tradition supersede convenience in Amish life. Horses must be fed morning and evening. It takes time to hitch and unhitch them. Stables must be cleaned and manure hauled to the fields. Horses must be shoed regularly, they kick and bite, and driving one on hilly country roads is dangerous.

  An ever-present sign of tradition, the horse slows things down, imposes limits, and articulates some of the deepest values of Amish life. Riding in a horse-drawn carriage is a visible symbol of identity, unmistakable to insiders and outsiders alike. As does any effective cultural emblem, the horse both integrates and separates as it marks the symbolic boundaries of Amish society.

  Assorted Brands of Buggies

  While the horse is a badge of identity for all Amish communities, buggies distinguish different affiliations from one another. In Plain Buggies, Stephen Scott identifies more than a dozen different carriage styles, including various colors—white, black, brown, yellow, gray.29

  On the outside at least, the carriage epitomizes a cluster of Amish values—separation, simplicity, frugality, equality, and humility. Clashing with the sleek style of modern cars, the stark, rectangular buggy symbolizes the stalwart nature of Amish society. Its shape and accessories are governed by local tradition rather than by market research or consumer desire. Like the horse, the carriage has spawned an infrastructure of Amish industries that manufacture, repair, and service carriages. Locally produced, the carriage is unaffected by the fluctuation of oil prices and import trends. It is, in short, a cogent statement of Amish values and identity.

  Although for the most part the buggy suppresses individual expression among members, for teenagers it is a different story. Some teens, depending on their affiliation, decorate their carriages with stickers and plastic reflectors or add air horns, stereo systems, and CD players run by batteries. One elder complained, “Some have wall-to-wall carpeting, insulated woolly stuff all around the top, a big dashboard, glove compartment, speedometer, clock, CD player, buttons galore, and lights and reflectors all over the place. … If they have the money, that’s what they do, and that’s pride.” Nonetheless, the buggy still stands apart from the high-performance cars
driven by some non-Amish teens.

  The different colors of these carriage tops (from left: white, black, yellow, white) show the church affiliations of their owners. Three different Amish groups live close together in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Daniel Rodriguez

  As a prominent public symbol, the horse and carriage articulates an image of uniformity that conveniently camouflages a multitude of differences in income. A businessman who travels in a hired truck all week supervising a multimillion-dollar enterprise drives his horse to Sunday services. Change-minded Amish who limit the size of their families and professionally landscape their homes nod with affinity to their stricter neighbors as their carriages pass on backcountry roads. Whereas in modern society the car accentuates social status and inequality, for the Amish the carriage levels social life. Farmers and homemakers, laborers and millionaires alike drop their trappings of status as they step into similar buggies. And they will all rest in a horse-drawn hearse on their final trip to the cemetery.

  Dialect, dress, and horse and carriage remain potent signs of cultural resistance, markers that for more than a century have successfully protested modernity, mobility, and consumption-driven lifestyles. Some Amish groups have acquiesced by accepting various changes—increasing the number of English words in the dialect, using synthetic fabrics for clothing, and hiring vehicles for certain purposes, for example. Even so, dialect, dress, and horse-drawn transportation remain robust symbols of integration and separation. Unlike the ceremonial symbols some other American ethnic groups display at cultural festivals, Amish signs of identity shape everyday behavior. They link members together in a common history and a shared resistance to modernity. As badges of ethnicity, they mark boundaries between the church and the world and announce Amish identity to insider and outsider alike. They offer compelling proof that, even while certain changes are unfolding behind the curtain, the Amish are still Amish.