The Amish: Shunned trailer: the price of cultural protection

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

I’m fascinated by the Amish, as many people are. How do they manage to maintain their way of life amidst a larger culture that is so very different?

Well, this is one way: by refusing to allow significant contact with the larger culture, even if that means pretending their own family members who’ve left no longer exist.

Very sad.

The Amish: Shunned debuts in the U.S. on Tuesday, February 4, 9pm Eastern as part of PBS’s series American Experience.

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RogerBW

Sat, Jan 11, 2014 3:52pm

If you won’t obey, you have to leave. This has been used to enforce obedience for thousands of years. Fortunately we now have a civilisation rather than howling wilderness outside the village — even if the people on whom this trick is used haven’t been told that.