Amish Education: A Synthesis
Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist
Studies
Anderson, Cory. 2015.
3(1):1-24.
Amish Peoplehood: A Critical Synthesis of Eight Decades of Theorizing
Research Points
- Because Amish studies scholarship operates with implicit theoretical frameworks about what the Amish are as a people, this article excavates seven distinct theorizations, synthesizing what has existed as theorized fragments across disparate publications.
- Provides syntheses and critiques of early theorizations and seven major theorizations:
- Early theorizations (1940s-60s) presented Amish as a bounded, traditional population whose distinctiveness required descriptive explanation, though with limited theoretical grounding.
- Hostetler (1960s-90s) theorized Amish as a collectivist “folk society” where stability produced integration while threatening changes fragmented sacred peoplehood; he assumed an overly fragile cultural superstructure that suppressed individual agency.
- Olshan (1980s-90s) framed Amish as change-accommodating individuals making value-rational choices, with diversity reflecting different value prioritization.
- Enninger’s (1980s) semiotic approach linked micro-interactions to macro-structures through symbolic communication and role performance, explaining how grooming/garment patterns, language selection, and social behaviors all signal roles that reinforce a superstructure built on core values.
- Kraybill’s (1990s-2010s) negotiating with modernity (NWM) characterized Amish peoplehood as fundamentally nonmodern, polarized against modern technology, social structures, and cultures, which Amish accept, reject, or negotiate with. Kraybill treats abstract structures like “Amish” and “modern” as if acting like individuals, relies on dichotomies (e.g. modern/traditional), and employs imprecise terminology.
- Nolt/Meyers’ (2000s) patchwork model emphasized internal Amish diversity in a cohesive quilt pattern, where peoplehood exists in conversations about shared concerns.
- Hurst/McConnell (2010s) conceptualized Amish diversity through internal/external forces and structure/agency creating paradoxical adaptations, particularly in settings where cultural values compete with individual interests, structural control with agency, and individual freedom with collective security.
- Reschly (2000s-2010s) framed Amish through Bourdieuian analysis of habitus/field interactions, where shared repertoires of action—or repertoires of the community—explain coordinated and contested changes.
- Several recommendations in the discussion section suggest ways to move ahead in theorizing:
- Abandon modern/traditional dichotomies that treat Amish as a more “traditional” preserved remnant rather than a contemporaneous social formation and focus on social variables without employing developmentally biased terminology
- Distinguish the Amish concept of “separation from the world” from social theory, avoiding uncritical adoption of religious frameworks as analytical tools.
- Address structure/agency tension through more direct theorizing of individual social action, examining how individuals invoke identities referencing social structures.
- Incorporate conflict theory perspectives that address power differences, resource inequalities, and self-interests beyond mere functional adaptation.
- Consider how “Amish” works not just as a social system but as an interpretive framework, a cultural schema for understanding social reality rather than just group characteristics.
- Focus on the “lived religion” concept, examining how Amish religiosity operates through embodied social regularities across multiple religious + non-religious domains.
- Articulate epistemological positions on how Amish peoplehood is known rather than treating theorization as mere prefatory work.
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