Laga 1

I arrive at Emmas house ready to make bread with her. She bakes five loaves of bread every one or two weeks for her husband Henry, one son, and four daughters. When we enter the shop, a long white plastic table stands across from the kitchen counter. On the table rest a Bosch mixer, a Nutrimill food mill, the ingredients, and two well-worn recipes. Emma brings out a large sack of wheat berries and tells me we need to grind about nine cups of the wheat. I get the food mill going, and while we make the flour we combine the other ingredients together. When Emma tells me to add the flour, she informs me that her daughters experience the most difficulty with this step because there is not an exact measurement. She laughs and says that its an art to getting it the right consistency because you have to rely on the feel of the dough. After adding the flour, we let the mixer run so we do not have to knead the dough ourselves. When the dough is done mixing, Emma helps me divide the dough into equal portions, shape the loaves, and put the dough into some prepared pans. While the bread is baking, Emma and I go inside the house and start to prepare turkey burgers for lunch. When the family sits down to eat, James leads everyone in a prayer before we begin. Following the meal, Henry and his son Daniel leave the shop, leaving Emma, two of her daughters, and me to clean up after the meal. These baking, cooking, and eating experiences represent a typical slice of life in the New Order Amish community. Women prepare and clean up meals, families dine together, and children learn their proper roles by watching their parents. But what can we learn from these foodcentered practices? What do baking bread or using a Bosch mixer teach us about the New Order Amish sense of self and identity, and how does the group use food to create both collective and individual identity? Drawing on Pierre Bourdieus theory of habitus, Sir George James Frazers Law of Contagion, Mary Douglas Purity/Pollution dichotomy, and Carole Counihan and Janet Carstens work on commensality, we can see that Amish food practices both preserve and reinforce a gendered, social, and individual identity. However, modern technology and changing food traditions threaten valuable beliefs and values, ultimately reshaping Amish culture in crucial ways.

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Before we can understand this morphing of New Order Amish identity, we must first understand the people themselves, including their origins, foundational values, and lifestyle, for their private belief systems shape their public lives. Background: Origins and Values The New Order Amish are a sect of Anabaptist Christians,1 a product of the Protestant Reformation. The Amish community in particular began with the Anabaptist leaders Menno Simons from the Netherlands and Jakob Ammann from Switzerland, who in 1693 became the respective leaders of the Mennonites and Amish. While both leaders proposed additional changes to the Anabaptist system, competing views of excommunication and shunning created divisions that led to the formation of the Mennonite and Amish denominations (Kraybill 6). Facing extreme persecution in Europe, the Amish and Mennonites left Europe shortly after their division and settled in Pennsylvania (Kraybill 9). Since their arrival, the Amish and Mennonites dispersed and now reside in communities across the United States, although most of the Amish communities remain in the East or in the Mid-West. In 1809, one particular group of Amish settled Holmes County, Ohio, which is generally grouped with my field site of Tuscarawas County (Shaw 11). Over the years, however, the Amish not only divided geographically, but the conservatism of lifestyle choices created even more sects. While the minute divisions between sects and even congregations are almost impossible to trace, even to the Amish themselves, the Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, have split into a range of groups from the more conservative Swartzentruber, Andy Weavers, and Old Order to the less conservative New Order and

1 Anabaptist Christians believe in adult baptisms, rejecting the idea of baptizing children or babies. Instead, young adults or adults decide to become baptized when they feel they understand the weight behind their decision and believe that they can decide for themselves to accept Jesus as their personal savior. This occurs around the ages of 1517.

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Beachy Amish (Hurst & McConnell 18). Overall, without external assistance or support, all Amish denominations maintain their standards and values. Lifestyle: Private Practice The Amish religion influences the lifestyle choices and customs within the community. Within all aspects of their culture, distinct behaviors and choices outwardly display internal values and beliefs. There are several key strategies and institutions the New Order Amish use to maintain community and preserve social and moral boundaries: geography, language, gender hierarchy, and education. To maintain their sense of boundaries and cultural purity, members often choose to live in locations that allow their community to separate itself from the outside world, and this separation is especially true of the New Order Amish in Sugarcreek and Baltic, Ohio. These two towns, located in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, are part of one of the largest Amish settlements in the world. Located in Northeastern Ohio, Tuscarawas County is about an hour and a half south of Cleveland, Ohio, and two hours west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Even the closer big cities, Akron and Canton, are about forty-five minutes away. Both Sugarcreek and Baltic are rural towns, indicated by their small populations and low population densities. Based on census data from the years 2005-2009, the population of Sugarcreek was estimated at 1,967, while Baltics population was around 583 (U.S. Census Bureau). Accordingly, houses are fairly spread out, often due to large plots of land for crops or animal grazing on the rolling green hills. Within the New Order Amish communities themselves, church leaders divide households into separate districts, or geographical boundaries, that delineate church congregations. The creation of these smaller church units helps foster group unity and creates more intimate personal

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connections. However, the districts often congregate for functions like youth suppers or school picnics, so members of different groups still interact with each other. While geographic boundaries may help separate the New Order Amish spatially, a distinct language helps maintain linguistic boundaries. The New Order Amish speak their own language, Pennsylvania Dutch, instead of English within their homes, churches, and communities. Children learn Dutch before learning English, and while parents speak English enough in the home for children to pick up a few words, formal education in the language begins when they enter grade school. The use of Pennsylvania Dutch in the New Order Amish community acts as a strong bond between members of the community.2 By speaking the language, the community unites itself by excluding outsiders from their personal conversations and knowledge. However, because all Amish speak English fluently, they used English in my presence, during interviews, and often for parts of the church meeting. More importantly, gendered hierarchy and practices create and perpetuate social boundaries. Given the New Order Amishs desire to maintain a strong sense of distinction, it makes sense that we encounter definite gender roles and relationships between men and women. Following their evangelical background, they strictly adhere to 1 Corinthians 11: 3, which reads: But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God (Authorized King James Version). As the Amish explain, this verse delineates the order of God, and thus sets out the order of their home and church life.

2 Pennsylvania Dutch, while seemingly similar to German or Netherlands Dutch, is actually distinct enough that the Amish actually cannot communicate verbally with most Germans or Dutch speakers. However, they can read and understand high-German to a degree because their Bibles are often in German rather than English.

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For men, being the head of the woman applies both spiritually and secularly. At church, the leaders are men, and they conduct services and give sermons. With the exception of the two youngest Sunday School classes, men are also the teachers because the Amish believe that it is not the womans place to teach spiritual concepts to the rest of the congregation. Within Sunday School classes, women never speak or answer a question with the exception of reciting memory verses. In the home, the man acts out his spiritual roles by leading the family in prayer and conducting nightly family devotionals. Secularly, the husband provides financially for the family and makes the ultimate decisions. This gender hierarchy exists because a woman should submit to her husband and yield to his directions and choices. As one women described, Theres been times that...we have had disagreements or we did not see everything eye to eye but we still, you know, talked it over and like I said hes the one that makes the final decision and I want to submit myself under that... (Caroline). Because men are the providers and work outside the home, the Amish expect the women to stay and be keepers at home. Many of the Amish emphasized the word at, explaining that working outside the home goes against the Biblical teaching. The duties and responsibilities of women are extensive at home and range from kitchen duties like cooking and washing dishes, chores like laundry and cleaning, and outside work like weeding, mowing the lawn, or gardening. But how do the New Order Amish teach their children about the religious beliefs, values, and customs and perpetuate their pure lifestyle? At the most basic level, the New Order Amish conduct church services every other week and hold Sunday School on the other weeks in the homes or shops of their members, not in a church building. Ministers give sermons, read the scriptures, and members sing during the three-hour church service, while the congregation attends classes during Sunday School after opening with songs and a prayer.

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Within the larger Amish community, the New Order sect takes care to religiously educate their youth in an effort to practice a more pure religion that aligns closer to Biblical teachings. Unlike some of the more conservative Amish groups like the Old Order Amish or Swartzentruber Amish, the New Order Amish do not engage in rumspringa, the time when the youth are allowed to explore the outside world and engage in practices contrary to the Amish lifestyle. The New Order Amish eliminated the rumspringa on the grounds that youth do not need to try out the things of the world to make sure being Amish and Christian are what they want to be for the rest of their lives. On a more secular level, the Amish only send their children to school through eighth grade, which contrasts with the American youth population. Legal protection for this practice came from the decision of the 1972 Supreme Court Case Wisconsin v. Yoder in which the court decided that requiring the Amish to attend school past eighth grade infringed upon their freedom of religion. The Amish primarily believe that formal education beyond the eighth grade is unnecessary and instead emphasize practical, hands-on knowledge. But even the school children attend in Sugarcreek and Baltic are religiously based. Their teachers are often young single girls who graduated with high marks from the school a few years previous, as the Amish church schools do not require state certification. Within these private institutions the children also discuss Christian values, sing religious hymns, and practice gendered roles like cooking or woodworking.

Lifestyle: Public Expression Because the New Order Amish want to maintain a strong sense of community and preserve their purity, it makes sense that we encounter unique lifestyle choices that distinguish the

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Amish from other people. Most notably, the New Order Amish in this area live without mainline electricity in their homes. However, alternative sources of energy, such as diesel generators, batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines are allowed. The main source of energy, however, comes from propane gas lines running through the houses and shops, powering such appliances as refrigerators, ovens, and lights. Various reasons exist for living without electricity. One common explanation is that without electricity they can better keep out such devices as television, radio, iPods, and computers.3 While these devices in and of themselves are not necessarily corrosive, the Amish worry about what temptations (immoral depictions and vulgar language) or problems (familial disintegration and social isolation) this technology could introduce. By eliminating these products, the New Order Amish can further separate themselves from the outside world and maintain their values and beliefs while simultaneously unifying themselves with one another. Clothing choices clearly identify the desire to withdraw from the world and bond with each other. While each church district determines its own particular set of rules regarding clothing, the general guidelines remain fairly common. Amish women must wear modest dresses to avoid tempting men with their body. For the New Order Amish in my field site, this entails a fulllength dress reaching almost to the ankle, although slightly longer than mid-calf seems permissible. Every dress includes a cape, which is an extra piece of fabric sewn onto the front of the dress to further conceal the breasts. For everyday dresses, the sleeves reach the elbow or slightly above, while Sunday dress sleeves reach mid-forearm to full-length. For a married woman, she must wear an apron any time she goes in public or interacts with people other than her family or close friends. For single girls, they must only wear an apron on Sunday for church, singings, or

3 While they could theoretically power any electronics with alternative forms of electricity, the New Order Amish explained that it would not be practical to run out and start the generator to watch a show

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Bible study on Wednesday nights. To reinforce unity, women wear nearly identical dress styles, although slightly varied sleeve designs or the presence of pockets exist. In terms of colors, the women cannot wear white, orange, yellow, red, or pink because the sect considers those hues flashy and attention-grabbing. New Order Amish women always wear a head covering, a practice that traces back to 1 Corinthians 11:5-7, 15,4 where the prophet Paul is preaching about the customs for men and women of the day. The Amish believe that if the direction was true in Pauls time, it should still apply today and thus be followed. There are two types of coverings: a cap and a head scarf. The opaque caps, constructed from stiff pieces of white material (or black on Sundays for unmarried girls), prevent seeing hair through the material and fit on the head much like a bonnet, covering most or all of the ears. Their hair itself, never cut, must be tightly brushed back, put into a bun, and pinned so that no stray hairs escape. Conversely, the head scarf is simply an oval piece of white or black fabric that is pinned or clipped onto the head to cover the hair. While both styles technically constitute a covering, women wear the traditional style cap in public and at church, while they don a head scarf at home because of its ease, comfortability, and cleaning convenience. Men have a relatively simpler dress, wearing homemade pants that use buttons instead of zippers and plain button up shirts without pockets. To further distance themselves from popular trends and worldly fashion, men wear jackets without any buttons or lapels, instead relying on hooks to close the over-covering. Unlike the women, the men lack any color restrictions on their
4 5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

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clothing. The only offered explanation is that women tend to get carried away with their fashion more than men. Grooming-wise, the single boys remain shaven until they are in a committed relationship leading to marriage. At that point, they grow a beard, which they will have for the rest of their lives.5 Perhaps the most obvious feature that separates the Amish from much of the world is refusing to own or drive a car. Like other more conservative Amish groups, the New Order Amish rely on horse and buggy for their transportation needs within a reasonable distance. The Amish offer multiple reasons for their refusal to drive cars, namely to prevent a busier, less home-based lifestyle and to make it difficult to travel to places where inappropriate behavior occurs. In a way, the horse and buggy acts as a distinguishing characteristic to set the Amish apart and make incorrect behavior more apparent and obvious. However, for distances beyond the traveling capability of horses, community rules allow the New Order Amish to hire non-Amish drivers. Members often justify this allowance in the same way they justify generators and batteriesits simply not practical to limit themselves to their immediate surroundings, and they must reluctantly accept some change to survive in this rapidly changing world. For instance, because most people do not live off their farms and are not self-sufficient, they must travel to the grocery store to get food for their families. Its often physically impossible to get certain supplies without using a car. Lifestyle: Culinary Expression At the core of the Amish lifestyle, however, is the substance of life: food. While seemingly insignificant, food is central to any discussion of culture because food pervades the social fabric of a group and influences the entire community from production to consumption. Food not

5 Within the New Order Amish community in Jefferson County, Ohio, there were some recent attacks in which disgruntled Amish turned on their fellow neighbors and cut off the mens beards and womens hair. The attacks on their facial hair were devastating for the victims, demonstrating the profound significance of the beard for men.

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only distinguishes the Amish from other peoples and cultures, but it also unites the Amish through a collective heritage. Perhaps unlike other culinary styles, Amish cuisine does not exist in a succinct, identifiable set of foods. Rather, the cuisine consists of common and easy to find items. First, Amish food tends to be very heavy and rich owing to the prolific use of butter, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, and Velveeta. Meat, generally some form of chicken or beef, is also a key component in a complete meal. Second, Amish food lacks any real seasoning, relying instead on simple salt and pepper. Spicy foods are noticeably absent from the meal table. Third, the Amish heavily depend on their gardens for homegrown vegetables or fruits. During the summer, fresh food from the large gardens is a prominent part of the meal while homemade canned goods dominate during the winter months. The Amish also have important traditional foods and food events that pervade their everyday life. In terms of food, the traditional Amish meal consists of mashed potatoes, dressing,6 salad or a vegetable, and a rich dessert, generally pie. Once a common everyday meal, this traditional meal more often appears at weddings (where it has an almost ubiquitous presence) and special events. In addition, Amish funerals almost always consist of noodles, potato salad, ham sandwiches, and then fruit or cupcakes for dessert, although delights 7 are quickly becoming popular desserts. A simpler, though important, traditional meal occurs every other week. Bread, peanut butter spread, cold cut meat, cheese, pickles, and cookies constitute the Fellowship meal after church, where members gather together to talk for several hours to discuss their

6 Amish dressing is quite similar to stuffing made during Thanksgiving, except it has pieces of chicken in it and is fried on the stovetop or griddle. 7 Dessert consisting of a graham cracker or cookie crust, a layer of whipped topping and cream cheese, and then a layer of fruit jelly or pie filling

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lives or local community events. This basic meal almost never varies, although occasionally another type of spread replaces the peanut butter. Theoretical Framework: Guiding Focus While the New Order Amish want to maintain a sense of community and protect themselves from the moral pollution of the outside world, we cannot deny that the New Order Amish are incredibly compromised. For example, the houses in the communities generally look identical to those in any neighborhood across America with their stone facades, paved driveways, and carefully manicured gardens (Hurst & McConnell 104). Alternative energy sources power modern appliances, and their ingredients come from national supermarket chains. We see a tension between the desire to separate from the world and the urge to adhere to popular styles. However, this contamination deserves close attention if we want to avoid making simplistic reductions or rash conclusions. Several theorists are especially useful as we consider the notions of purity, community, and identity. First, Sir George James Frazers work The Golden Bough introduces the Law of Contagion, which I use to help explore the idea of inclusion and exclusion within the Amish community. Based on the idea of sharing essences, Frazers work allows us to explore the idea that the physical act of cooking and food preparation imbues food with a physical identity. Mary Douglass work on purity and pollution complements and expands my use of Frazers work because her concept of purity and pollution also helps explain how food can create boundaries around people, connecting those inside a group bond with one another while distancing them from others. Within these boundaries, however, the strongest force is arguably the practice of eating together, which both Carole Counihan and Janet Carsten explore through their ideas of commen-

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sality. Carsten in particular uses commensality to explore how boundaries between people establish group identity. However, I depart from Carstens view and argue that the Amish extend their idea of commensality beyond the familial entity. Finally, Bourdieus concept of habitus suggests that the physical act of cooking binds people together and creates a sense of identity. Food preparation passes down cultural knowledge and helps perpetuate the strong beliefs that unite the Amish because the physical act of cooking socializes the Amish into a particular world view. As the Amish cook, they perform a food-based ritual, helping to create a sense of solidarity as members of the group obtain and reconfirm shared beliefs. What these theorists have in common is an attention to boundaries, social cohesion, and identity. They encourage us to defamiliarize the ways people conceive of themselves and present themselves to others.

Gendered Identity: Responsibilities and Behaviors Within all aspects of Amish society, food and food practices construct and reinforce strict gender norms and distinctions. But how do these responsibilities affect womens conceptions of themselves and their place in society? Are there tensions between what women want to do and have to do? To what degree are women oppressed and confined because of their seemingly structured division of labor, and how do they construct a place within society and find meaning and satisfaction in their roles? A close look at the intersection of food and society reveals some interesting and important answers to these pressing questions. Gender Socialization: Knowledge and Skills

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New Order Amish mothers teach only their daughters how to make particular foods before getting married, a practice that helps define a woman as a good wife. We see evidence of these social patterns and identity creation in the way mothers have their daughters in the kitchen with them from infancy assisting with cooking duties. While toddlers might first observe their mothers cooking, over time they will help stir a pot or pour in a cup of flour. Gradually, the responsibilities multiply as the girls transition from helping with meals to preparing entire dinners by themselves. While helping in the kitchen might seem relatively meaningless, Bourdieus theory of habitus helps us understand the connection between seemingly insignificant private acts and larger social orders. He uses the term habitus to describe a set of acquired patterns of thought, behavior, and taste, which is said...to constitute the link between social structures and social practice (or social action) (Marshall). In other words, habitus is a form of socialization that describes how certain learned behaviors create a way of being. Social norms become become naturalized or normalized as people systematically perform physical actions and assimilate corresponding values and beliefs into their perceptions of the world. This devotion to patterns of thought, behavior, and taste is also evident in a mothers perceived expectations and responsibilities concerning food, both for herself and for her daughters. One woman explained that if I want her to get married and know how to cook, I better teach her or else shes going to go to the store and buy macaroni and cheese and TV dinners (Anna). If an Amish woman does not know how to cook, she cannot fulfill one of her important duties as a wife and must rely on the outside world to provide for her family. While almost every society views women as the familial food preparers, regardless of culture, nationality, or religion, the Amish view cooking as an essential part of a womans identity, and failure to fulfill this role results in judgment from others in the community. One woman I talked to hated to cook, but she

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explained that societal rules required her to cook. She revealed that there are people that hire someone to help them clean their house. Or do sewing for them. But if I hire someone to come in to cook for me everybody would raise their eyebrows. I know they would. She added that hiring people to do sewing or cleaning, on the other hand, is readily accepted. As she explains, Especially not to do sewing. I mean thats a very accepted thing. I mean theres people that love to cook and maybe spend four hours a day in the kitchen and then do not have time to sew their stuff then they could hire someone to do their sewing for them. And thats fine (Abigail). While sewing or cleaning are still responsibilities in the home, cooking is the ultimate and necessary responsibility for New Order Amish women, so learning how to cook is a requisite skill that becomes ingrained in their sense of self through constant socialization.

Gendered Foodstuffs: Masculine and Feminine Identity But do men ever have a role in cooking within Amish society, thus creating their own culinary space? Do men carve out their own spaces of autonomy and creativity through cooking (Masha Sukovic et al. 229), or is the domain strictly for females? While New Order Amish men spend very little time in the kitchen, they do possess some culinary skills, and they can prepare some easy meals if their wives, sisters, or mothers cannot fix a meal for them. When men cook, their food becomes specifically marked and identified as masculine because the food is identifiably different than the food women prepare. To separate themselves from women, New Order Amish men specialize in simple dishes that bear no resemblance to womens component meals of a meat, vegetable, and dessert. For example, when asked if their husbands ever cook in the home, most of the Amish women simply laugh and remark that their husbands never make a complete meal for the family, although they can fix themselves a sandwich or make eggs if nec-

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essary. Additionally, women often remark that the men surpass them in their ability to grill, and men often grill for the family meal. The contrast between how men and women eat and cook is important because, as Jeffery Sobal argues, gender embeds itself within food choices, creating masculine and feminine identities (136). What we eat, or food itself, points to a certain sense of personhood. This gendering of food and cooking styles reveals that when men enter the womens domain, they still reflect the strong distinction between men and women so important to the New Order Amish. While they may lack the creativity suggested by the above authors, their simple food and cooking style allows them to forge their own space in the kitchen. More specifically, Sobal argues that doing masculinity means eating like a manconsuming manly foods at manly meals in a manly way (139). New Order Amish men perform masculinity without crossing into the womans domain when they engage in the catching, processing, and cooking of their own meals, often with the companionship of other men. As Jay Mechling argues in his piece about Boy Scout cooking practices, the male friendship culture...must frame the potentially feminine behavior as masculine; the work does not make the man feminine. The man makes the otherwise feminine work masculine somehow in his performance of the work (70). Perhaps the most common example of this performance within the New Order Amish community is when men fish with their friends, catch a haul, gut the fish in the forest or on the porch, and then proceed to fry the fish, generally over an open fire. At one get-together I attended with three families, the men spent almost half of the evening catching, cleaning, and cooking the fish. They would not let their wives cook the fish in the cast-iron skillet over an open fire. Instead, they crouched around the flames and discussed the ideal golden brown color of the crust among themselves. These fishing expeditions are the only examples of engaging in and controlling every part of the food-making process that I recall during my visit.

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The key to doing masculinity, then, is largely the process of food preparation because men reframe their behavior into an act of power and control by dominating the entire process from start to finish and moving the preparation outdoors, making the cooking manly instead of womanly. Given the strong distinctions between men and women within the Amish community, these food choices and cooking practices further differentiate the two genders and reinforce cultural ideals and values. However, the distinctions between men and women do more than simply divide the two genders from one another. Rather, the boundaries unite members of each gendered group with one another. Mary Douglas work on food taboos within Leviticus illustrates a similar phenomenon that is useful to explain the dual function of such boundaries. According to Douglas, the dietary restrictions followed by the Jews are physical manifestations of holiness, which means both complete and separate (55). As she argues, By rules of avoidance holiness was given a physical expression in every encounter with the animal kingdom and at every meal (58). By distinguishing what belongs and what does not, a community creates a boundary around themselves, simultaneously uniting and separating. For the Amish, then, particular foods and styles of cooking between men and women foster symbolic gendered identities by distinguishing what is feminine and what is masculine. Religious Order: Recoded Responsibilities Many might look at the strict New Order Amish belief system and social structure and claim that the culture oppresses women by confining them to the home and its seemingly mundane tasks. By current womens rights standards, the fact that Amish women submit to their husbands authority, labor only within the home, and perform nearly all the food-based responsibilities confirms an inequality between genders. When asked why these were womens tasks, one

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girl explained all the responsibilities in the home fell to women because The Bible specifies that the man should be the provider of the family. So he is out and about bringing home like the money and stuff and the woman is more designated to be a stay at home mom (Elizabeth). The food preparation itself becomes religious because it reflects a devotion to scriptural teachings, conforms to church hierarchy, and reinforces a limited role for women. But how do these New Order Amish women even come to accept these seemingly strict and restrictive roles in the first place? Once again, we must turn to Bourdieus habitus and the socialization process of cooking, a practice that embeds religious dogma into the young girls minds. As one woman, Caroline, emphasized, Now Im teaching my girls how to bake bread and keep house...somewhere in Titus you can read about keepers at home, being keepers at home. Baking bread, then, becomes a way for Caroline to socialize her daughters. She teaches them how to become wives and mothers who stay home and care for their families because she is having them physically perform the gendered action. Before long, the responsibility of baking bread will seem second nature. Many of the women I talked to mentioned that they never even reflected on those roles because its just the way its always been. This seemingly mindless acceptance of certain responsibilities is similar to what Bourdieu is exploring when he suggests that habitus renders the performance of certain behaviors unconscious (Grenfell & James 18). More than simply modeling what a woman should do, however, Caroline is teaching her daughters about the religious reasoning for the social hierarchy. She reinforces the notion that the Biblical phrase keeper at home includes kitchen responsibilities like baking. However, some New Order Amish women recode their behavior to find fulfillment in their roles by subverting in some ways the male dominance and leadership. As seen in Susan Starr Sereds Food and Holiness: Cooking as a Sacred Act among Middle-Eastern Jewish Wom-

Laga 18

en, food becomes a way to integrate and include women in the religious services and express their faith. She writes, in diverse cultures...women are excluded from much of the formal religious domain, yet experience a well-developed religious life that is intrinsically and often indistinguishably intertwined with their profane, day-to-day, female activities (129). Sered suggests that women can wedge themselves into the formally male-exclusive religious world by imbuing their food responsibilities with spiritual significance, thus giving their roles a deeper and more symbolic meaning. We can use Sereds framework to understand the New Order Amish. While religious beliefs bar the women from performing any church rituals, women are able to accept the structure and find spiritual satisfaction with their situation. An especially good example of this redefinition is how bread allows women to become involved in both formal and informal church functions. For instance, women bake the bread for the sandwiches after church. During my study I never saw packaged bread used, and during interviews women always referred to someone making their own bread for the meal, either using an electric mixer or combining the ingredients by hand. The actual method seemed less important than the fact that physical labor and sacrifice went into the creation. One respondent, Juliet, remarked that this last time we had church services I had like twenty-two loaves of bread...Some people offer to make a couple loaves of bread or whatever they need done to help out. But for myself I thought it was easier just to do my own bread. I usually do it the week before and put it in the freezer and then Saturday night I take it out of the freezer and then on Sunday mornings I cut it and get everything ready for Sunday meeting. Note that Juliet recodes by becoming a leader in her own right by taking on the sole responsibility of making the bread when church was at her own house. While others could have helped, Juli-

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et embraced the opportunity to contribute to the church service and play a role in the service. The men might provide spiritual nourishment, but the women, like Juliet, supply the physical feasts. By feeding members of the church, the women turn their commonplace activity into a sacred performance because they, like the ministers, bring the congregation together and encourage unity. The role women play in the Communion service is perhaps more important in terms of gaining a degree of control than providing fellowship meals. Though the service is directed by the church ministers, providing the Communion bread falls to the wife of the deacon. While she might not actually bake the bread herself, turning instead to either a local bakery or friend in the district, she is responsible for furnishing the key component of the service. Just as observing particular food laws is central to the Jewish Passover holiday, the loaf of bread is the core of the Communion service. And like the Passover meals, the rituals dependence on food spiritualize[s] and legitimize[s] womens everyday activities because cooking, which is one of the time-consuming, repetitive, unremunerated, generally unappreciated, physically demanding activities that women do all year becomes ecclesiastical (Sered 136). Through the religious ceremony, the profane bread becomes a sacred object, and the women gain greater power because they provide the necessary element of the Communion service. Without this tangible and edible product, the figurative and spiritual ritual could not exist. Collective Unity: Social Cohesion If food helps construct a gendered identity and distinguish masculinity from femininity, does this mean that food actually divides the New Order Amish and creates unity only between members of each gender? At first glance this separation appears legitimate, and on one level this is true because men and women find common groups and bond through particular rituals and preferences. However, this view is limited because food actually brings the New Order Amish to-

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gether as a cohesive whole because on the societal level, the boundaries created by food separate the Amish from their non-Amish neighbors. The Amish, then, bind themselves together through particular foods and special food-centered practices and events. Along with both sacred and profane culinary rituals, the Amish create and maintain social cohesion in all areas of their lives, from the family hearth to the community center. Solidarity: Religious Symbolism Mary Douglas notion of purity and pollution best explains how ritualistic food practices can unify a community. Douglas maintains that food laws and practices can create boundaries around certain groups of people. By deeming a certain food sacred and by restricting its ingestion to only certain members of a population, those who observe the food practices find a common bond. Douglas theory echoes Emile Durkheims well-known theory of rituals, for he explains how these religious events bring the congregation together so members can reconfirm their beliefs and membership. For the Amish, these particular acts like Communion fulfill a presumed commandment from the New Testament, but more importantly the behavior solidifies the entire group by reinforcing central Christian beliefs. Because the community conforms to the same religious paradigm, the cohesion between people is much stronger than if they were simply bound together by economic dependency. Because the Amish find much of their identity through their church, food plays a key role in creating and strengthening the religious community. We see this underlying spiritual connection most obviously through both the explicit use of food in church services and the implicit symbolism and metaphors surrounding such objects or rituals. These literal and figurative meanings of food bind the Amish together through a shared system of beliefs.

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Perhaps the most basic use of food within a spiritual setting that unifies the church district and its members is the sharing of bread and wine during Communion. Occurring twice a year, the meal is a binding force both within individual districts and across the Amish community. Because only baptized members of a congregation consume of a piece of bread and a sip of wine from a single cup, they construct a boundary around themselves by creating rules about consumption of the bread and wine, separating themselves from those outside of both the district and culture as a whole. At the same time, however, they unite with one another in their shared practice. As each member performs the ritual, they become united as a group and reconfirm their status in the group. However, the physical act of consuming a piece of bread and a drink of wine is not the only way in which the Amish use food in a religious sense. Rather, they also view the single loaf of bread as a metaphor for the unity of the church. During one church service, a minister explained that the members need to be perfectly broken like the grains of ground wheat that go into the bread of Communion. The little pieces all come together and are unified into one body to become perfectly whole. This symbolic wholeness is why the bread must be baked in a single loaf. Given the emphasis on what Durkheim calls social solidarity within the church, the Amish extend their Christian beliefs through symbolic imagery. While Communion brings together baptized members, women use food as a teaching tool for their children to illustrate Biblical concepts or stories in understandable ways and begin the process of bringing children into the Amish religious community. For example, one woman taught about Jesus resurrection on Easter by baking a meringue-like cookie for her nieces and nephew. As the mother described it, We were supposed to make it Saturday night before Easter. It was like...walnuts

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and then you pound those into small pieces to show how they beat Jesus before they crucified him...and then you were supposed to...heat the oven and then turn it off and put them in the oven and then the next morning it was... hollow in the middle and that was...to represent the tomb. (Christina) Using this interactive recipe, the aunt teaches a relatively difficult concept to her nieces and nephew. By so doing, the woman brings the children into the Christian belief system and includes them in the religious community. She begins to separate them from those in the impure world who do not possess the same Christian ideas. This simple teaching tool starts the process of socializing the children into the Amish community by inscribing sacred beliefs into their malleable minds. Connections: Social Functions and Meal Time More important than using food to solidify religious beliefs and unite with one another, the Amish also foster a spirit of fellowship by connecting people through more secular foodbased events that emphasize commensality over religiosity. Carole Counihan suggests the power of eating together when she writes, Commensalitythe sharing of foodestablishes communion and connection in all cultures (107). For this reason the food itself is not the main focus its the act of connecting through food-centered events. The fellowship meal after church, for instance, brings together a church districts members to create strong social bonds. The event crucially relies on food because the substance serves as the grounding force between members of the church, but the food merely fosters the conversation between people because the menu is so consistent and repetitious that the meal blends into the background. Yes, people eat their sandwiches, but conversation with friends and neighbors becomes the main purpose of the meal. As Caroline exclaimed, I think it draws the people together. Just to sit down and eat together and

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talk together....Otherwise if we did not serve that meal people would go home without getting a chance to...find out how things are going in other peoples lives. The food of the fellowship meal itself is overshadowed by the communication it enables. But what is the connection commensality creates in the fellowship meal if the event actually distances families from one another? In many ways the arrangement creates new social bonds between members of the church that might not normally interact. Commensality, then, simultaneously divides and unites, ultimately connecting the entire group by breaking down cliques and forging a sense of communal identity. Physically providing food for others in need extends the notion of commensality to encompass charity. George Wenzel explains the power of sharing food in creating unity very succinctly. In Inuit Subsistence and Hunter Support in Nunavut, Wenzel argues that providing food to others is premised on the knowledge that a person may expect to receive reciprocal treatment from others because of responsibilities that kinship, village co-residence and cultural solidarity confer on each person (qtd. in Searles 60). Sharing food, then, creates social ties and creates a sense of community because there is the expectation that the community will provide food when an individual needs it. The Amish, then, unite with one another because they not only literally share common food, but because there exists among them the belief that neighbors care for and watch out for one another. During my sojourn within the Amish community, I witnessed first-hand the importance of sharing and giving meals or treats to friends and neighbors alike. At the first home I lived in, I helped bake cookies about every other day. Rather than merely placing the treat in a husbands lunchbox, the cookies were often given to church members with ailing relatives or women who recently had babies. One instance that stands out in my mind was when my host mother called to check up on a friend whose aunt was in the hospital because of a sudden, life-threatening medi-

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cal condition. During the conversation, my host mother exclaimed that we would make her cookies because she understood how difficult it was to have a close family member in the hospital, and people brought her treats when her own father was dying. What is important to note from this example is reciprocal treatment. My host mother recognized the services others provided for her in the past and felt a need to reach out to someone else dealing with a similar difficult situation. By sharing the food with this woman, my host mother symbolically met the cultural code for commensality and created a closer connection with her friend and fellow church member. This food provision also extends to furnishing food for funerals. Members of the deceaseds own district, as well as surrounding districts, help prepare and bring food for the funeral open house and meal following the service the next day. Assignments are distributed on slips of paper at church, and everyone comes together to help in the time of need. Not only does the service help create cultural solidarity through a common ritual, but the act connects the Amish together because they collectively understand that others in the community will perform the same service for them when one of their loved ones passes on. But even more important than sharing foodstuffs is sharing food responsibilities with one another. One of the most obvious examples of such occasions is the preparation of wedding meals, an event that illustrates the donation of time and energy in food preparation. As the tradition goes, a week before the wedding, friends, church members, and relatives come together and help prepare an elaborate meal for between 450 and 600 people. The wedding meal requires hours of work, a tremendous sacrifice for women in the community. But the New Order Amish women generally find value in this service, remarking that there is a closeness, you know people work together that morning (Juliet). Another girl insisted on the importance of laboring as a group, arguing that its in our lifestyle everybody is...so busy. And it takes a lot of sacrifice,

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which is probably a good thing, that we actually take off and like help each other (Elizabeth). By engaging in this communal practice, the Amish table their individual needs and focus on helping others. By doing so, they not only emphasize the community over themselves, but they also work to create communal bonds and unity with one another. Interestingly, the Amish bond as a family and celebrate shared cultural values through meal time conversations, songs, and prayers. Counihans commensality theory allows for such a community and family duality, but the theory differs from Janet Carstens exploration of the commensality of families in Langkawi Island, Malaysia in her book The Heat of the Hearth. Carsten argues that for the Malay, sharing food unites families while separating them from outsiders. The community strongly discourages and disapproves of eating a meal in anothers home, so family meals distinguish the insider from the outsider (52). This perspective of meal times, however, differs from the practice of the New Order Amish because the Amish often invite others into the homes for meals or gather for carry-ins after Sunday school to eat within their larger church family. But how do the Amish manage to create two levels of unity through commensality? On a familial level, suppers create intimate kinship ties because the meal becomes a way for people to talk about their day with each other. Unlike dinner time in most American homes that involves eating in front of the television, consuming fast food in minivans, and rushing through fiveminute meals in order to get to a recreational activity, Amish clearly organize their meal times and emphasize bringing the family together. Dinners occur at set times, often when the husband returns home from work. Almost without exception every family member sits down at the kitchen table, real plates and silverware before them, as well as decorative serving bowls. Dinner

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begins with a prayer, and families spend the meal discussing their days with one another without the distraction of TVs, radios, or reading materials. Through these family dinners, however, eating together reinforces and perpetuates a core Amish cultural paradigm. The meal time and family bonding become a way for the Amish to teach their children other key values, beliefs, and traditions. Besides the obvious values of respect and obedience, the shared meals around the table foster a spirit of cultural solidarity by allowing parents to socialize their children into the life of the Amish. Traditional gender norms and expectations become clear as children watch their fathers bless the food or sit at the table. Similarly, they see their mothers prepare the food and clean up afterwards. In addition, many families sing Christian hymns following the meal, which children begin to learn before they can even speak English. These hymns not only unite the family together, but they also instill key Christian and Amish beliefs and values into the children that connect them to the community as a whole. Insiders and Outsiders: Foods and Cooking Styles The way food acquires a distinct Amishness best demonstrates the separation from outsiders and the connection between insiders. Food acquires this unique identity thanks to the actual women who make the meals. Sir George James Frazers Law of Contagion, which states that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed (11), explains this concept best. The principle is founded on the idea that everyone possesses a particular essence which is passed onto whatever a person touches, and the essence can have either negative or positive effects. As one man, Norman, explained, Amish cooking is just simply something that an Amish lady cooked. His wife Cora emphasized this point, arguing that if an Amish makes it, its Amish cooking...if shes not Amish, its not Amish cooking. The food, technique, and taste might even be the same, but

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the cuisine rests in the actual person who touched the ingredients and prepared the meal. In this instance, then, cooking passes on a particular essence that gives the food a unique Amish identity that other foods do not possess. Furthermore, by consuming Amish food, people then connect with their Amish culture because they are partaking of the essence of the woman who prepared the meal. Beyond the process, however, sometimes even the flavor or taste of the food carries a distinctly Amish identity. Some of this revolves around the seasoning differences between Amish and non-Amish, but an even greater reflection of this separation and distinction between Amish and English is evident in the difference between homemade foods and store-bought food. While the Amish buy processed ingredients, as we will see below, they usually view their food as homemade because many of their ingredients are, in fact, homegrown in their gardens and because of the cooking process involved in making the meal. Instead of buying a prepared lasagna, for instance, they will actually make one from scratch. As Norman, told me, nobody Amish would use instant mashed potatoes....and other foods like that...we use real potatoes and we use hamburger instead of Hamburger Helper (Norman). Entire processed meals, then, denote English food while homemade food is Amish. What this difference points to, then, is that the Amish view their food in relation to non-Amish food in a similar way that Carsten argues the Malay do with their commensality rules. The Malay discourage eating meals in the homes of others because eating together creates ties to kin while simultaneously distancing connections to others. In both cases, a dichotomy forms between inside and outsider, and by creating those distinctions and categorizing the food, a boundary emerges between Amish and non-Amish that seems to reflect their desire to separate from the world.

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But how did the Amish standardize their flavor and taste palate? The answer lies in the shared cookbooks that concretize Amish cuisine. In a study of French culinary texts, Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson argues that the gastronomical field turned a culinary product into a cultural one...culinary institutions and texts in the 19th century effectively transformed the patently classbased culinary product and practices of the ancient regime into a prime touchstone of national identity (601). Just as the cookbooks create a sense of Frenchness, as Ferguson explains it, the Amish cookbooks forge a sense of Amishness. Within the New Order Amish community in Sugarcreek, Ohio, the same cookbooks appear again and again in the kitchens.8 Because of this small selection, most women cook the same types of foods and even use the same recipes. This common culinary text creates a sense of commensality because people eat together by ingesting the same dishes and recipes. More importantly, the ingredients are simple and easy to obtain. By their very nature these ingredients not only reflect the value of plainness, but they exclude foreignness, which further isolates the Amish from the outside world and maintains a sense of local community and togetherness. Social Change: Modernity and the Future While the Amish value traditions in most aspects of their lives, embracing processed foods, introducing new mainstream meals like pizza and taco salad, and using electric mixers affect long-standing customs and threatens Amish cultural identity. Some people might argue that most Americans eat Marie Calendars frozen meals and use Kitchen-Aid mixers, downplaying the Amish adoption of such practices. However, this view neglects the fact that New Order Amish society sustains itself through tradition and separation. By buying store-bought food, abandoning family recipes, and losing culinary knowledge, the Amish are becoming dependent

8 Harvest of our Heritage, Grandmas Kitchen, Walnut Valley Cookbook, ABC Cooking, and the Maranatha school cookbook seemed the most popular overall

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on grocery store staples, identifying less with a unique cuisine and losing cultural heritage. The Amish worry about involving themselves in the world and succumbing to societal pressures in many aspects of their lives, yet they are slowly slipping into the larger society because of their food choices. What we can see, then, is that the increasing adoption of modern food practices threatens the cores of Amish life, namely family unity, simplicity, cultural knowledge, and worldly separation, because the technology is slowly unraveling the threads of tradition and standards. Or, understood through Bourdieu, these changes threaten socialization practices that help form identity and a sense of self. The introduction of these modern kitchen tools, especially the Bosch mixer, leads to a reduction in the time spent together, and mothers and daughters lose valuable bonding moments. One woman ruminated on the issue, suggesting that were getting away from some of those things that probably have some value in them as far as working together...if you do things together like that its bonding and family time (Grace). This comment echoes Counihans theory that commensality creates connections, except instead of sharing actual food, the women are dividing up food responsibilities. The time cooking and baking together not only facilitate learning, but those moments also bring mothers and daughters together to talk about important issues and share information about their lives. Modernity in cooking also reflects a shift in the Amish way of life and suggests an abandonment of one of the core cultural values: simplicity. Currently, Amish cuisine relies heavily on sour cream, cream cheese, or Velveeta. New jobs in factories, trade shops, or stores allow the Amish to first buy the ingredients on a regular basis, and now they have become inseparable from Amish cuisine. But by using these ingredients, the Amish demonstrate a higher standard of living, and they move away from a simple, farm-based lifestyle. For example, one woman re-

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marked that we used to put very little butter in and another thing I think at that time people did not have as much money and they did not spend so much where now the money is probably a little bit more and you just splurge a little more than what our parents would have (Edna). Instead of making do with what they have or going without, the New Order Amishs new-found affluence now allows for extras in their daily lives. While seemingly insignificant, the introduction of these ingredients into the Amish homes blurs the boundaries between Amish and English and threatens the social cohesion. What was once a special treat is now the norm, shifting the idea of what constitutes simplicity, and thus losing a central aspect of Amish identity. More importantly, however, traditional knowledge disappears as modern technology seeps into the Amish household. For years the New Order Amish women taught their daughters to make bread by hand and spent hours passing on what they knew. Now, Bosch mixers greatly reduce the skill involved in making bread. One mother expressed this transition, saying, I remember my mom...she would use a big thirteen quart stainless steel bowl to start out with her bread dough...That was something that she taught me young....Kneading it with my hands and knowing to tell when it was done...Now I have a Bosch and I just dump everything in. I always thought I wanted to make sure my girls would get to know how to make bread with their hands, but...if theres a Bosch in the house, its a challenge. (Jane) As Jane articulates, these advanced kitchen tools reduce the skill needed to make bread. So many of their other lifestyle choices center around resisting change and preserving traditional knowledge because the Amish believe that one small adjustment is the slippery slope to losing their way of life. Other areas of the New Order Amish lifestyle resist change, like the dress style, and because they want to keep that belief and tradition, mothers teach their daughters to sew and con-

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tinually wear the same style of dress. They continually reinforce this standard and resist succumbing to fluctuating trends and evolving fashion. But cooking techniques lack the same concern, and unlike the tradition of their clothing, girls will not learn how to prepare meals by hand, and as a result, they will not be able to pass down the knowledge to their own children. A large part of Amish culture will be lost with the introduction of these modern conveniences. Above all, these new kitchen appliances and gadgets make children less self-sufficient and capable. If the Amish want to maintain their separation from the world, they must know how to work and do things for themselves. If they do not, then theyll begin to rely more and more on store-bought goods and services. One young adult told me, Mothers are not as consistent in teaching their daughters and daughters are more lazy from what they used to be....Their moms and dads have time to do all the work...and they feel theyre doing their children a favor by not making them work as hard. Whereas theyre actually ruining them because theyre not learning all those things and then once they get married, they do not know...I just think its just been lost by the wayside more so. I mean, they fail to pass it on. (Amelia) Due to these changing food trends, generations begin to lose cultural knowledge, and slowly children will become less and less socialized into the Amish lifestyle. If habitus relies on physical actions to create a way of being and thinking, then these modern appliances and kitchen technologies severely threaten the perpetuation of Amish identity. Significance: Contributions and Ruminations Throughout this paper, I explore the ways that food impacts the New Order Amish society of Tuscarawas County, Ohio.9 In particular, I focus on how food influences three main components of Amish life, namely gender, community, and modernity. Within each element, food
9 As noted earlier, this is often considered part of Holmes County, Ohio

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helps form, preserve, and reshape important aspects of Amish personhood and identity. Harvesting, preserving, cooking, and eating socialize particular beliefs and behaviors and create senses of self, while ethnic foods, food traditions, and culinary texts represent physical means of reinforcing such identities. However, certain lifestyle changes threaten traditional identity and value systems. Food, then, serves as an epistemology, a window into how people create, cultivate, and maintain certain identities of themselves, both as individuals and members of the larger community. My study adds to the limited research available on the New Order Amish and contributes to a neglected aspect of the sect.10 More specifically, my observations of gender construction through food responds to the call for research by Sidney W. Mintz and Christine M. Du Bois about the role food plays in the social allocation of gender (109). Exploration of food and its influence exposes gender roles and expectations, addresses womens views of themselves and others, and explores food-based socialization power. By examining these perceptions, I address the way in which the gendered division of culinary labor shapes the perceived value of women in society and what it means to be a man or woman in Amish society. Beyond describing the narrow conception of gendered roles and behavior, I reveal that Amish women find fulfillment and even enjoyment in their positions. Often, especially since the womens movement of the 1960s, Americans view such rigid gendered structures as repressive, unequal, and even demeaning. But this view is more complicated and nuanced than an oppressed/liberated dichotomy offers us. Less obviously, my study investigates how food creates and strengthens relationships within the Tuscarawas County New Order Amish community, thus illustrating how food helps
10 Beth E. Graybill writes that few scholarly articles have been written about Amish women and that in Amish studies, studying women is another step toward gendering a field that has, by and large, not seen the need nor had the will to consider gender as an important axis of analysis (70, 259)

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forge unity and construct a community-based identity. However, I also explore the corrosive effects of technology and the movement of the New Order Amish towards modernity with their food and culinary appliances. These evolving food choices, emerging technological advancements, and changing behaviors mark a dramatic change in the Amish value and belief system, diverging from fundamental aspects of their traditional way of life. This transition threatens the survival of the culture. As the Amish abandon their traditional foodways, they become less separate from the rest of the world, a division that is crucial to their survival as an independent and cohesive community. More important, as the Amish lose culinary traditions, women spend less time working with their children and food, an activity that helped teach important cultural values like responsibility, resourcefulness, and hard-work. Above all, one questions whether the loss of food customs will let other more vital aspects of Amish culture and identity slip away. If Anthelme Brillat-Savarin was correct when he writes Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es (Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are) (13), then we have to wonder what the Amish cuisine will soon say. Indeed, much more remains to be done to investigate how changing food trends will affect the Amish way of life, including what it means to be Amish. For the New Order Amish, food becomes a way to maintain and perpetuate crucial aspects of their identity, namely rigid gender roles, collective unity, and individual personhood. Who the Amish are as peopletheir values, beliefs, traditionsintertwine with what they eat, who prepares the food, and how they compose a meal. In fact, their food-based rituals instill the Amish way of life and thinking within the community. However, while food can help preserve these important aspects of Amish identity, modern culinary changes like electric kitchen appliances and store-bought processed ingredients threaten the very core of Amish culture by encroaching on traditional practices and values. The ultimate impact of these transitions might be

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unknown, but at the very least, the Amish must be aware of how food, as the basic necessity of life, can influence their culture in decisive ways.

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References Brillat-Savarin, Anthelme. Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante. Paris, France: Tessier, 1834. Print. Carsten, Janet. The Heat of the Hearth: The Process of Kinship in a Malay Fishing Community. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1997. Print. Counihan, Carole & Kaplan, Steven L., eds. Food and Gender: Identity and Power. Newark, NJ: Gordon and Breach, 1998. Print. Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo Florence, KY: Routledge, 1984. Print. Durkheim, mile. Division of Labor in Society. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1933. Print. Ferguson, Priscilla Parkhurst. A Cultural Field in the Making: Gastronomy in 19-Century France. American Journal of Sociology 104.3 (1998): 597-641. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. Frazer, Sir George James. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1922. Print. Graybill, Beth E. Amish Women, Business Sense: Old Order Women Entrepreneurs in the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Tourist Marketplace. Diss, University of Maryland, 2009. Grenfell, Michael and David James. Bourdieu and Education: Acts of Practical Theory. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press, Taylor and Francis Inc. 1998.

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Hurst, Charles E. & McConnell, David L. An Amish Paradox: Diversity & Change in the Worlds Largest Amish Community. Baltimore, MA: The John Hopkins University Press, 2010. Print. Kraybill, Donald B. The Riddle of Amish Culture (Revised Edition). Baltimore, MA: The John Hopkins University Press, 2001. Print. Marshall, Gordon. "Habitus." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. Web. 5 Nov. 2011

Mechling, Jay. Boy Scouts and the Manly Art of Cooking. Food and Foodways 13.1-2 (2005): 67-89. Print.

Mintz, Sidney W. & Du Bois, Christine M. The Anthropology of Food and Eating. Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002): 99-119. Print. Searles, Edmund. Food and the Making of Modern Inuit Identities. Food and Foodways 10.1-2 (2002): 55-78. Print. Sered, Susan Starr. Food and Holiness: Cooking as a Sacred Act Among Middle-Eastern Jewish Women. Anthropological Quarterly 61.3 (1988): 129-139. Print. Shaw, Shannon O. The Holmes County Amish Settlement 1956-1996: Examining Complexities and Emerging Districts. Honors Thesis United States Naval Academy, 2010-2011. Sobal, Jeffery. Men, Meat, and Marriage: Models of Masculinity. Food and Foodways 13.1-2 (2005): 135-158. Print. Sukovic, Masha, Barbara F. Sharf, Joseph R. Sharkey, and Julie St. John. Seasoning for the Soul: Empowerment Through Food Preparation Among Mexican Women in the Texas Colonias. Food and Foodways 19.3 (2011): 228-247. Print.

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The Holy Bible: Authorized King James Version. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1979. Print. U.S. Census Bureau. 2005-2009 American Community Survey. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.

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Appendix Demographic Information of Respondents

Respondent (Alias) Emma Caroline Anna Abigail Juliet Christina Elizabeth Norman Grace Edna Jane Amelia Age 42 39 45 43 45 28 26 71 44 68 45 26 Location Sugarcreek, Ohio Baltic, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Baltic, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Sugarcreek, Ohio Baltic, Ohio Marital Status Married Married Married Married Married Married Unmarried Married Married Married Married Unmarried Number of children 1 boy, 4 girls 1 boy, 4 girls 2 boys, 3 girls 2 girls, 3 boys 2 boys, 2 girls 3 girls, 1 boy 0 1 boy, 4 girls 4 girls, 1 boy 3 girls, 2 boys 3 girls 0

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