The Amish

The Amish are a group of church abiding people, whose way of life is driven by their religion. There religion basically tells them that they must be separate from worldly sin to receive salvation. Every facet of their life has something to do with them keeping this way of life. There way of life ties in with their mode of subsistence. The Amish are horticulturist. “Horticulture is a non mechanized, non intensive form of plant cultivation performed non repetitively on a plot of land”(Nowak &Laird 2010).
This mode of subsistence is very simplistic and fits in with all that the Amish believe is right. This paper will talk about the history of the Amish culture as well as analyze and evaluate the impact of the Amish primary mode od subsistence has on its belief and values, gender relations, and social change.

The history of the Amish can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century. This came about because before there was a printing press everyone in the catholic church got there knowledge of the bible from ministers. When printing presses were created, bibles was more accessible and people began to read them for themselves. The more and more people read, they began to question how the word was being taught to them, believing that the churches had strayed from how the bible is telling them how they are supposed to live their lives.

While the reformation was going on, a group of students in Zurich, Switzerland in 1525 petitioned the local church for change. When their petition did not get anywhere, they secretly baptized each other and created the Anabaptist movement. They believe that “christian pratices should be based more in scripture, baptism should occur only after a person is able to recognize sin, and there should be more separation between church and state”(pp 1 Exploring Amish Country). The Anabaptist did not agree with the ideas of everyone they was involved with during the Reformation. The biggest issue was