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The Amish & Technology

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The Amish have rejected the ownership and personal use of automobiles, farm trucks, and tractors. Most other American's however have a love affair with the cars, trucks and SUV's (as well as motorcycles, and ATV's). Write an essay in which you do an analysis of the role of the automobile in American culture -- compare the effects of motorized transportation on most of American society, with the Older Order Amish society. Include a discussion of the American values (from the list on pages 38 and 40) that automobile ownership supports (two examples might be materialism and freedom, but there are others as well). What DIFFERENT values might the Old Order Amish hold that make them oppose automobile ownership? Also address the impact of the automobile on our material culture (on how we build our homes, communities and workplaces, on where we live, work, vacation and shop). Compare this to the communities of the Old Order Amish described by Hostetler. Could the Amish have "folk" communities is they allowed people to use automobiles?

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Solution Summary

The solution is a 709-word APA format essay discussing the role of the automobile in Amish culture particularly since the Amish see technology and industrial innovations as suspect, rejecting them as they go against their faith and belief systems. The solution looks at these set rules (the Ordnung) and looks at the 'adaption' that some Amish communities have done with regards to technology that they have come to use for one purpose or another. References are listed, a word version is attached for easy printing.

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Dear Student,
The solution below is longer to contain the explanation and description necessary to answer the questions posted in your problem (300 words is rather limited to fully answer the demands of the questions posted). It is up to you to choose which arguments to use in your final version. References are provided. Thank you for using Brainmass. Good luck!

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OTA 105878/Xenia Jones
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The Amish: Old Values vs. Technology

To truly understand the Amish one must look back to the conditions of their ancestors into the Colonies - like the Quakers and the Puritans, they sought the refuge of the colonies for freedom to practice their faith. Through American-Amish history, one stout factor remains - the Amish social structure is deeply rooted in religion and tradition that their lives, values and actions revolve around it - to practice their beliefs is part of each individual member's identity, indoctrinated from childhood and continuous life experience. The Ordnung - a set of oral and written rules governs the Amish faith and dictates what it means to be Amish including clothing, behaviour, home design, cooking practices, farming practice, social relations (including that with the 'outside' world) and attitudes towards the outside world. The Amish are Anabaptists but through the years (centuries, in fact), factions have split the ...

Solution provided by:
Xenia Rochelle Jones, MA, PhD (IP)
Education
  • MPhil/PhD (IP), Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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