Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities

8 The Paoli-Salem Communities

            The Paoli-Salem Communities The southern Indiana barn raising attracted Amish participants from four different settlements in Orange and neighboring Washington counties. Some of the men arrived in enclosed buggies; others came in open ones. Half of the carriages bore bright orange triangles indicating a Slow Moving Vehicle (SMV), and half did not. A few of the workers had hired English drivers to bring them to the site, while others would not have countenanced such a move. Many had long beards, though a few sported tightly trimmed beards. Some of the men wore wide suspenders, others wore narrow ones, and still others wore no suspenders at all. A majority of the group spoke Pennsylvania German, while the rest conversed in Swiss. About half the men saw nothing wrong with sharing tobacco as a common pleasure of the work day; others refused smoking and chewing on principle and would not work in the presence of those who did. These Amishmen had come together around a common building project as people committed to helping one another and extending mutual aid. Yet the differences in appearance, custom, taboos, and communication were striking reminders of the diversity of practice and the complex web of relationships negotiated among the various people who claim the Amish name. South central Indiana is home to an intriguing Amish arena. Around the towns of Paoli and Salem, four different settlements exist side by side in an area with a radius of perhaps fifteen miles. Each settlement has a distinct history and represents a particular approach to Ordnung. Nor are the four groups all of the same ethnic background. Making sense of these differences challenges many of the popular and academic assumptions about Amish life and raises provocative questions about the nature of Amish identity. A central tenet of Amish faith is separation from the world. Yet the ways in which the Amish variously mark that separation distinguish Amish groups from one another as much as from the rest of society. Identity can be shaped as much by perceived differences and similarities among settlements as by conscious comparison with mainstream culture. The Amish often describe their practices with the vocabulary of “high” and “low.” A “lower” church is more conservative and more traditional than a “higher” one. The term “lower” also calls to mind the Amish value of humility, or lowering oneself in relation to others, thus suggesting that those in higher churches—rather than being more fully developed or mature—are actually flirting with dangerous values. Academic observers have picked up on this linear imagery and used it more rigorously than the Amish have. Constructing a spectrum of conservative-to-progressive or traditional-to-liberal Amish groups, observers have postulated ladders of acculturation and Anabaptist escalators of adaptation.1 Such a one-dimensional model, however , imposes too narrow a view of the elements that are important to Amish life and limits one’s ability to see the many different ways in which convictions cluster and cohere. Linear models also reveal the ways in which modern minds—intentionally or not—measure the Amish with fundamentally progressive assumptions that may not be best suited to Old Order realities.2 The weakness of lining up Amish groups on a conservative-to-progressive continuum becomes especially evident when considering the four settlements around Paoli and Salem, Indiana, which illustrate the complex relationships that shape Amish identities. Critical factors in the construction of identity often fail to combine in ways that can be expressed in linear fashion. Moreover, consistency is in the eye of the beholder. Those who take traditionalist positions on technology may not do so when it comes to more innovative social custom or theological discussion. Similarly, one’s stance on appropriate occupations may not signal one’s openness to tampering with worship patterns or engaging with potential religious converts. And differences in ethnic culture complicate any comparisons.   The south central Indiana counties of Orange and Washington are home to five distinct Amish settlements, four of which exist almost on top of one another and are        -                  considered here.3 To the east of the Orange County seat of Paoli lies the oldest of the communities, which for convenience will be called the Paoli settlement. Just to the north of the Paoli group, near the town of Orleans, is a Swartzentruber settlement related to the Swartzentruber Old Order affiliation in Ohio and elsewhere...