Naren's Post

The Amish People
By: Naren

The Amish were best known for simple living, plain dress, and have learnt to avoid many conveniences of modern technology. Their population was 249,000, and their founder was Jakob Ammann. They lived in United States (notably Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New York) and Canada (notably Ontario).  Their religion was Anabaptist, and their languages were Pennsylvania German, Swiss German, and English. 
     Their founder was Jakob Ammann was born in 1656, in Erlenbach im Simmental, Canton of Bern, Switzerland, but later moved to Alsace as part of an emigration pack of Anabaptist. His exact date of birth is unknown. Some believe he was born on February 12, 1644 to Michael and Anna Rupp Ammann of Erlenbach, but it is uncertain.   On February 27, 1696 he signed a petition against compulsory military service. He was probably leader of that until his death. Ammann’s date of death is also unknown, though it might have happened after 1708 and before 1730. His life is a mystery but we know that he was the founder of the Amish.
The Amish are afraid to any technology which they feel weakens the family structure. The conveniences that the rest of us take are electricity, television, automobiles, telephones and tractors are considered to be a temptation that could create inequality or lead the Amish away from their close-knit community. Most Amish cut their fields with horse-drawn machinery, live in houses without electricity, and get around in horse-powered buggies. It is common for Amish communities to allow the use of telephones, but not in the home. Instead, several Amish families will share a telephone in a wooden cabin between farms. Electricity is sometimes used in certain situations, such as electric fences for cattle, flashing electric lights on buggies, and heating homes. Windmills are often used as a source of naturally generated electricity. It is also not unusual to see Amish using such 20th-century technologies as inline skates, disposable diapers and gas barbecue grills, because they are not prohibited to use them.

Amish lifestyle is lead by the order, which differs slightly from community to community, and, within a community, from district to district. What is allowed in one community may not be allowed in another. No summary of Amish lifestyle and culture can be totally fair, because there are few generalities that are true for all Amish. Groups may separate over matters such as the width of a hat, the color of buggies, or various other issues.

It is difficult to  put an  estimatr of their population, but rough estimates from various studies have placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008, for a growth rate of nearly 4% per year. From 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84%. During that time they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states.  In 2000, approximately 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of which 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of 6.8 children per family.
As time has passed, the Amish have felt annoyed by the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility, are areas of difficulty. Amish have thrived in their non-mechanic world. Their success has lasted a long time and it still last today. Would you want to live a lifestyle similar to the Amish? Why or why not?