It is always interesting and enlightening to read about other cultures, even ones within our own country. ( )

Read - got rid of

Ce livre dresse le portrait de la culture amish et l'énigme qui règne autour de cette société qui refuse de vivre avec la modernité du monde qui les entoure.

Les amish, est une communauté issue du mouvement anabaptiste habitant en Amérique du Nord et étant issue d'une région de Pennsylvanie. Cette communauté fascine notre société moderne puisqu'elle n'utilise aucune de nos nouvelles technologies ni internet, ni téléphone, ni machinerie : Les Amish sont restés figés au XVIIIème siècle, focus sur ces technophobes d'un autre âge ayant pour slogan "Tu ne te conformeras point à ce qui t'entoure.".

I read this for a series of talks by a ex-Amish man, who appreciates its accuracy while criticizing the author's role as a filter and a buffer, presenting and protecting the Amish. The book is sociological in tone, organized by theme, with occasional quotes but mostly impersonally academic, informative but not immersive. It begins with a chapter on Anabaptist history: the separation of Amish and Mennonite (to shun or not to shun), and divisions among the Amish (house worship or meetinghouse worship, rejection or acceptance of technology). It ends with a chapter summarizing the regulation of social change, the considerations behind decisions. In between are chapters portraying the Amish as a dynamic community, entwined with, and continuously negotiating with, the outside world. A cultural ideal is Gelassenheit, a word that can be translated as yielding to a higher authority, submission, humility, simplicity, contentment, a word that our speaker said he'd never heard among the Amish, though he accepts its meaning and importance. The immediate authority is the bishop and the Ordnung. School stops after 8th grade, with an additional "vocational" year in concession to legal requirements. Independent thinking is not esteemed. To the outside observer, change is not glaringly apparent, but it occurs. Electricity is limited to batteries, but much can be done with pneumatic and hydraulic power, there is no lack of mechanical creativity in converting modern farm equipment for use with the symbolically essential horse, and people are always nudging the boundaries. Under economic pressure, the Amish have been shifting from agriculture to business. All is presented straightforwardly and unsentimentally, though generally with a positive spin from the perspective of the Amish. In this context, the riddles / puzzles / paradoxes became irritating: why calculators but not computers? why scooters but not bicycles? why is it OK to ride in a car but not own one? as if a tourist brochure got stirred into textbook. Still, it's not for nothing that the author is the go-to guy for everything Amish.

(read 26 Mar 2012)