Mechanical Solidarity

An example of mechanical solidarity would be the Amish, which are a group of traditionalist Christians. We know that this kind of solidarity is characterized by highly religious beliefs (i.e. all members share the same beliefs), little interdependence between its members, the use of repressive sanctions, a strong collective conscious (i.e. collective authority is absolute), among others. Basically, the collective outweighs the individual. Moreover, when we look at the Amish way of living, we notice that a lot of these characteristics are met: family authority over the individual (i.e. a person is more a family member than an individual), they all share the same religion, use of corporal punishment to discipline children and an overall decision