The Survival of the Amish Community

This thesis examines that the three-hundred-year-old Amish community could survive remaining their values and culture emphasising on their strong belief in religion as well as their plain and separate lifestyle from the outside world. I will prove that despite their desire to eliminate the modem world from their everyday life, the Amish were compelled to accept some achievements of modernity being aware of the fateful consequence of the total refusal. The main reasons to adapt technological innovations were population growth, remarkable increase in land price, pressure ofthe government and last but not least the rise of tourism. These impacts resulted in occupational changes, though, the Amish have been paying particular attention to be faithful to their secular conventionality. I will demonstrate that they could find balance between the progress and tradition, which was the key of their survival.