Rosanna of the Amish

Rosanna of the Amish is a touchingly true story of an Irish Catholic orphan who was adopted into a Pennsylvania Dutch Amish home. When she was about nine years old, one of the older brothers came to visit with her for the first time and would have “kidnapped” her on his return to New York and his Catholic upbringing if given the chance. Fortunately, she was well loved by Momly, her adoptive mama, and the whole Amish community was sympathetic to the soft-spoken cheerful black-haired girl so no opportunity was given in which the brother could entice her on the train with him to haul her back to the lifestyle to which she was born. And so Rosanna was raised Amish, married Amish, bore and raised three Amish sons, one of whom years later wrote this simple biography of his mother and the Amish community.

It seems the purpose in writing this book was to acknowledge a son's wonderful mother, who became a pillar of the Amish community, and to also give a factual informative introduction to what Amish life is really about. Joseph Yoder (1872-1956), the son, stated that many people, all outsiders commonly known as “fancy” people, had attempted to write about the Amish community but distorted the truths and glossed over the key principles of hard working, honest, law-abiding, sober, simple and quiet community-minded people. He didn’t want the reading public getting a sensationalized perspective of the Amish but to have a true portrayal of daily Amish life from birth to death from one who was intimately aware of the traditions and beliefs and how those traditions and beliefs often were misrepresented by a growing number of writers, of course, unfamiliar with Amish life. And so Joseph wrote Amische Lieder, Rosanna’s Boys, Amish Traditions, and Rosanna of the Amish.

To me this book was fascinating! I would love to be an anthropologist in a hard-working Amish community of farmers and live with them for an extended period of time. A drawback to that would be in the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish community that Joseph Yoder grew up in had as many as 6 different religious divisions based on religious beliefs by the mid 1900s, and it would be quite the cipher distinguishing their subtleties by someone from the "outside" interacting with a community that values words and uses them conservatively. I suppose distinguishing between the various groups of Amish would be much like distinguishing between the varying Protestants who share a core of beliefs but burst off of the core in a medley of subtle, and some not-so-subtle, interpretations.

However, I am a bit perplexed by just HOW these groups are different. Yes, I do realize this was an introduction to the Amish community but in this book the divisions among the Amish churches were explained to be based on a linear graph of Old Timers who did things like they had been done for hundreds of years to other Amish circles that were more accepting of modern conveniences. A few examples of how the Amish community gradually splintered away from the Old Timers school of thought were seeing no worldliness in wearing suspenders, worshiping in a church building rather than gathering in a home, "dancing" (seems to be related to how the body moves to music, and what kind of music, rather than "fancy" people's concept of "dancing" with wild or free abandonment). In any case, people who chose to have less rigid interpretation of clothing, entertainment, etc were viewed as more liberal and “worldly” and therefore could be shunned. Changing membership from the Old Timers gathering to another gathering was also reason to be shunned, provided that person had been baptized in the Old Timers' gathering; otherwise there appeared to be more acceptance of people originally accepting the more liberal gatherings.

One thing about this book, it strikes me anew as I write about it, is that the portrayal of the Amish church gatherings was not grounded on Biblical texts but seemed to be focused on non-Biblical differences. To me, this reflects the internal turmoil of dissention between the Amish groups that the author was aware of as a Plain person but failed to communicate to "fancy" people who want to understand the Biblical foundations of the group(s).

Doing anthropological research in an Amish community though would be very exciting to me as I enjoy working with my hands, I approve the hard-working simple lifestyle, and I have so many questions. I think if I were to be an anthropologist among the Amish, the two largest points of interest I would most want satisfied would be concerning religion and concerning health beliefs/practices. My questions would springboard from:

1. RELIGION - What are the core religious beliefs of the Amish community? What has caused the churches to divide? What kind of communication exists or doesn’t exist between churches?
2. HEALTH - What kind of health problems are typical of Amish communities? What kind of disease prevention is used? Are autoimmune diseases prevalent in the community – and if so, what kind? Does celiac disease exist in the community (big question as the Amish eat a lot of flour products)? How are doctors viewed – what kind of doctors? What kind of medical treatments are allowed and disallowed? What are the Amish beliefs about donating blood, organs, having operations?

I realize that the Plain people wouldn’t be comfortable talking freely with a “fancy” person like myself, but I think there are many values cherished by the Amish that the “fancy” people of the world could embrace to better their enjoyment of life and be better stewards of the world. Yep, I would love being an anthropologist in such a community with strong religious and family values!