Quiz 1

At the end of the video, The Amish and US, the producers of the video gave three possible scenarios of what might happen to the Amish during the next few decades. Explain sociologically what you feel will happen.

The first scenario was that in 25 years, the Amish will be no more and that the few remaining descendants of the Amish will dress up as Amish to put on a show for the tourists. The sociological causes are: 1) suburban sprawl that drives up farm land prices that make it impossible for Amish to buy land for farming vs. urban development. 2) Tourism destroys Amish privacy and bring in outside influences that destroy Amish beliefs. 3) Money from tourism lures away the young people. 4) Outside business people exploit the Amish image and are the ones that are making the money.

The opposite view is that a new day is donning for the Amish. Tourism has brought unlimited prosperity. New housing developments are providing new, high paying construction jobs for the Amish youth to remain in the community. Amish handycrafts produce millions in income to meet the deficits caused by the need to purchase agricultural land and from losses in farming. Non-Amish outside business people provide a valuable function because they keep the tourist on the main roads and away from the Amish and their culture This permits the Amish to survive in numbers and in wealth.

The third view is that tourism looks good for the Amish. Amish benefit from tourism and always used modern things before tourisms. They will continue this adaptation to the changing situation. The main problem will be the loss of Amish traditional spiritual values such as communal decision-making and privacy from the present world. The Amish will become more of this world. This means that the Amish will survive in the more secluded areas of the Amish country and will hang-on for a while.

I feel the later is the most probable in the next few decades.