Weaver-Zercher,Writingthe 3/24/05 11:51 AM Page i WRITING THE AMISH Weaver-Zercher,Writingthe 3/24/05 11:51 AM Page ii Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. Pennsylvania German History and Culture Series, Number 5 Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society, Volume 38 (2004) Editor Simon J. Bronner The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Editorial Board C. Richard Beam, Millersville University Donald F. Durnbaugh, Juniata College Aaron S. Fogleman, Northern Illinois University Mark Häberlein, University of Bamberg, Germany Donald B. Kraybill, Elizabethtown College Kenneth McLaughlin, University of Waterloo, Canada A. Gregg Roeber, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park John D. Roth, Goshen College Hans Schneider, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany Denise A. Seachrist, Kent State University, Trumbull Richard E. Wentz, Arizona State University Marianne S. Wokeck, Indiana University—Purdue University, Indianapolis Don Yoder, University of Pennsylvania Previous titles in the series Margaret Reynolds, Plain Women: Gender and Ritual in the Old Order River Brethren, edited by Simon J. Bronner Steven M. Nolt, Foreigners in Their Own Land: Pennsylvania Germans in the Early Republic Jeff Bach, Voices of the Turtledoves: The Sacred World of Ephrata Corinne and Russell Earnest, To the Latest Posterity: Pennsylvania-German Family Registers in the Fraktur Tradition Weaver-Zercher,Writingthe 3/24/05 11:51 AM Page iii EDITED BYDAVID L. WEAVER-ZERCHER WRITING THE AMISH The Worlds of John A. Hostetler the pennsylvania state university press university park, pennsylvania A Keystone Book A Keystone Book is so designated to distinguish it from the typical scholarly monograph that a university press publishes. It is a book intended to serve the citizens of Pennsylvania by educating them and others, in an entertaining way, about aspects of the history, culture, society, and environment of the state as part of the Middle Atlantic region. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Writing the Amish the worlds of John A. Hostetler / edited by David L. Weaver-Zercher. p. cm.—(Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society ; v. 38. Pennsylvania German History and Culture series, number 5) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn0-271-02686-3 (alk. paper) 1. Amish—United States-Historiography. 2. Hostetler, John Andrew, 1918– . 3. Historians—United States—Biography. 4. Ethnologists—United States—Biography. 5. Ethnology—United States. 6. Amish—United States—Social life and customs. 7. Amish—United States—Social conditions. I. Weaver-Zercher, David, 1960– . II. Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society (2001). Pennsylvania German history and culture series ; no.5. e184 .m45w75 2005 305.6'89773'0722—dc22 2005008352 Copyright © 2005 The Pennsylvania German Society All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802–1003 The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses. It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1992. Weaver-Zercher,Writingthe 3/24/05 11:51 AM Page v Contents list of illustrations vii foreword ix Ann Hostetler preface and acknowledgments xiii David L. Weaver-Zercher part i: perspectives on john a. hostetler 1 1. An Amish Beginning 5 John A. Hostetler, with Susan Fisher Miller 2. The Redemptive Community: An Island of Sanity and Silence 36 Donald B. Kraybill 3. Plain Folk and Folk Society: John A. Hostetler’s Legacy of the Little Community 56 Simon J. Bronner 4. An Uneasy Calling: John A. Hostetler and the Work of Cultural Mediation 98 David L. Weaver-Zercher part ii: writings of john a. hostetler 150 5. Letter to Amish Bishops Concerning Shunning (1944) 154 6. Toward a New Interpretation of Sectarian Life in America (1951) 161 7. Excerpt from Amish Life(1952) 172 8. God Visits the Amish (1954) 182 9. Why Is Everybody Interested in the Pennsylvania Dutch? (1955) 189 10. The Amish Use of Symbols and Their Function in Bounding the Community (1964) 197 11. Persistence and Change Patterns in Amish Society (1964) 215 12. The Amish Way of Life Is at Stake (1966) 233 13. Old Order Amish Child Rearing and Schooling Practices: A Summary Report (1970) 236 14. Folk Medicine and Sympathy Healing Among the Amish (1976) 251 contents vi 15. The Amish and the Law: A Religious Minority and Its Legal Encounters (1984) 262 16. Marketing the Amish Soul (1984) 280 17. A New Look at the Old Order (1987) 284 18. Toward Responsible Growth and Stewardship of Lancaster County’s Landscape (1989) 300 the life of john a. hostetler: a chronology 317 the publications of john a. hostetler: a bibliography 321 contributors 343 index 345 Weaver-Zercher,Writingthe 3/24/05 11:51 AM Page vii Illustrations 1.1 Four-year-old John A. Hostetler and his brother, Jacob 6 1.2 Neighbors beside the Hostetlers’ hip-roof barn in Pennsylvania 11 1.3 Students at Snake Hollow Elementary School in Iowa 13 1.4 Hostetler with wedding gift for his sister, Sylvia 22 1.5 Marlboro State Hospital in New Jersey 27 1.6 Hostetler and fellow CPS workers in Pinehurst, North Carolina 29 1.7 Hostetler with Goshen College peace advocacy team members 30 1.8 Penn State University sociologist William G. Mather 31 1.9 Penn State University anthropologist Maurice A. Mook 31 1.10 Hostetler and Amish men at a religious freedom symposium 34 2.1 Hostetler in conversation with Amish man 43 2.2 Longtime Hostetler collaborator, Gertrude Enders Huntington 49 2.3 Johns Hopkins University’s genetics research team 50 3.1 An Amish barn raising 66 4.1 The Kishacoquillas Valley, from the top of Jacks Mountain 102 4.2 Joseph Hostetler, John A. Hostetler, and Lee Kanagy 105 4.3 A. Monroe Aurand Jr.’s Little Known Facts about Bundling 118 4.4 John A. Hostetler’s first edition of Amish Life 119 4.5 Photograph of Amish girl (from first edition of Amish Life) 128 4.6 Ink drawing of Amish man (from first edition of Amish Life) 129 4.7 William B. Ball, John A. Hostetler, and William C. Lindholm 135 7.1 Photograph of Amish boy (from first edition of Amish Life) 174 7.2 Ink drawing of Amish man plowing field (from first edition of Amish Life) 176 7.3 Photograph of horse and buggy (from first edition of Amish Life) 177 7.4 Ink drawing of Amish woman baking (from first edition of Amish Life) 179 10.1 Contemporary Amish hairstyle (from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 201 Weaver-Zercher,Writingthe 3/24/05 11:51 AM Page viii list of illustrations viii 10.2 Instrument for making hooks-and-eyes (from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 202 10.3 Amish broadfall trousers (from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 203 10.4 Modern Lederhosen of Germany (from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 204 10.5 Amish Kapp, Halsduch, and Läpple(from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 207 10.6 Kappworn by Palatine women (from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 208 10.7 Halsduchof Palatine women (from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 209 10.8 Palatine counterpart of the Amish Läpple(from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 210 10.9 Eighteenth-century scoop hat (from “Amish Use of Symbols”) 211 Weaver-Zercher,Writingthe 3/24/05 11:51 AM Page ix Foreword Ann Hostetler As an Amish-born scholar of the Amish people, John A. Hostetler embodied the tensions of relating to both the Amish and academic worlds. As his daugh- ter, I was privileged to observe the many ways in which he sought to integrate his heritage and faith with his vocation as a “cultural worker.” Paradoxically, my father’s decision as a young adult not to join the Amish church enabled him to maintain close friendships among the Amish throughout his life. The Amish do not shun all who leave the community, only those who take the vows of church membership and then leave. Even though he traveled a wide social register, my father always kept in close contact with his family of origin and made sure that we, his children, felt connected to his brothers and sisters—through frequent visits and a decades-old family circle letter, which continues to this day. When I was growing up I spent a week every summer on the farm of my father’s Old Order Amish sister and her husband in Pennsylvania’s Kishaco- quillas (Big) Valley, my father’s birthplace. During these weeks I encountered something of what my father valued so much in his culture of origin. Daily routines centered on the agricultural rhythms of small farm life. Water flowed from the mountain behind the house into the taps, so it was always plentiful, cold, and clear. My sisters and I washed dishes, tended the garden, helped with canning, and rode in the buggy to the store or the meat locker. We collected ladybugs from the garden and built matchbox houses for them; on rainy days we raced marbles on a handmade wooden marble roller or looked at slides of exotic places through a View-Master. When my grown cousins and their fam- ilies would gather at my Old Order aunt and uncle’s home, we would turn homemade ice cream with whatever fruit was in season—strawberries or peaches from the garden or market, blackberries and raspberries culled from the mountainside—and gather around the kitchen table expanded with a half- dozen extra boards. I didn’t realize it then, but not everyone in the family would have been able to sit at this table.