Amish Culture Essay

It is fact that the Amish culture is dominated by males, men are seen as more important than women; males traditionally being the leaders of the community. Men in the Amish culture are heads of the church, head of their family, are held responsible for the decisions and welfare of their family and are passed down family farms from generation to generation. In the Amish culture, females are expected to traditionally accept their role to marry and be a farmwife, when Amish women marry they are agreeing to be submissive to their husband. This means that the husband has control over his wife and the decisions and orders he makes are the ones that she must stick by. Amish women also are the primary caretakers of the home and also school the children.
The bible is the Amish’s major source of power and authority and Amish communities are influenced by their church with minimal influence from the ‘English World’ (outside world) with other religions being unaccepted. At the age of 14-16, a child gets to decide whether they would like to be baptised back into the Amish community or instead leaves the community to join the English World at the opportunity of a Rumschpringe. Most decide to enter the Amish community with a baptism but if they do not they are shunned from their previous community. If baptismal vows are broken then that leads to a member of the community to being shunned. When a member of the community is shunned it means that they have been ex-communicated with the church so that eans that they cannot eat or ride with anyone in the community otherwise there is a risk of that person to also be shunned. Shunning is a way of punishment to the Amish for breaking rules because the Amish community is all that one has after being baptised and being shut out from everything and everyone you love makes them learn their lesson. Males in the family are the main sources of power, as fathers are the primary authoritative figure. Decisions are made solely by the father with authority rarely