ANTH316 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Amish Mennonite, Swiss Brethren, Anabaptism
19 Jun 2018
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Department
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Professor
Brethren Beliefs
1. company of christians
2. who take new testament as their authority
3. Aho seek by a democratic process to achieve a good life for all people
4. Resulting organization is more of a family than a church institution
5. Church is mystical in that brethren seek direct inner experiences of the presence of god
without intermediaries
6. Those experiences leads members to explicitly follow the values of āprimitive christianityā as
existed in the early christian church
Mack says Amish Mennonite etc have gone astray: lots of them join Brethren, Mennonites donāt
like their growth
2 big amish beliefs
Gelassenheit: Yieldness
Yielding to god and one another and church community thru
Ordnung: set of behavioral rules determined by church community
Uffgevva: to give up
Give up oneās self to authority of church and its god ordained leader, complete
Submission, renounce any form of self-will
No prayer but the lordās prayer
COLONIAL ANABAPTISTS: part 1-material issues
Pennās tolerance pulls not just Anabaptists but many other Germans from devastated Rhineland
Church Germans: Lutherans, Protestants, etc
Meeting Germans: Mennonite, Brethren, Amish
Roughly 25% of Germans entering PA were Anabaptist
Most come as freeman, some come as redemptioners or indentured servants
Many could come as freeman, bc of help groups in Netherlands
Penn also established Quaker aid societies to recruit good farmers
Many mennonites also move into Prussia and further East
Most of these Eastern Europeans emigrate to America in the 19th century
First Mennonites settle in Germantown-most start moving north and west to start farms
Dutch mennonites tend to move north and northwest: from Franconia Mennonite Conference
Swiss Brethren and German Mennonites tend to move west and south
Mennonites become real good at understanding land grant rules that were hella complicated
Warrant system: Penn couldnāt sell land, only āgrantā it
Amish tend to settle more by language and origin than religious issues
Very few suitable amish names: lots of people with same name
Detailed records to prevent them getting too incestuous
Fraktur: illustrated marriage or birth announcement: source of recording
Warrant System
Penn granted a lot of land to his relatives-could only do so much without getting in trouble
Granted to land agents: relatives, quakers, mennonites, had to pay a fee to become agents-
agents could sell the land, but a tax was charged on the land back to penn
Land agents gave land to land speculators: set a price for the future date (plus tax to penn) . If
they canāt pay, the land is forfeited back to penn: penn always proļ¬ts
Document Summary
Mack says amish mennonite etc have gone astray: lots of them join brethren, mennonites don"t like their growth. Yielding to god and one another and church community thru. Ordnung: set of behavioral rules determined by church community. Give up one"s self to authority of church and its god ordained leader, complete. Penn"s tolerance pulls not just anabaptists but many other germans from devastated rhineland. Roughly 25% of germans entering pa were anabaptist. Most come as freeman, some come as redemptioners or indentured servants. Many could come as freeman, bc of help groups in netherlands. Penn also established quaker aid societies to recruit good farmers. Many mennonites also move into prussia and further east. Most of these eastern europeans emigrate to america in the 19th century. First mennonites settle in germantown-most start moving north and west to start farms. Dutch mennonites tend to move north and northwest: from franconia mennonite conference.
