Bruce M. Tharp

Ascetical Value: Consumption and the Materiality of Spirituality Among the Old Order Amish Bruce M. Tharp

The Old Order Amish of Elkhart-LaGrange, Indiana are distinctive in their acceptance of and reliance upon employment in local (non-Amish) industrial factories, which provides greater disposable income and greater leisure time than their farming brethren. Contrary to conventional notions of their asceticism, these Amish are engaged in consumptive activities such as riding in automobiles, eating in restaurants, and using some electric-powered technologies. This text explores (1) the notion of asceticism and the Amish reconciliation of their religiously-grounded tenets of industry, frugality, and the separation from worldliness, with an increasingly pervasive and seemingly persuasive ?culture of consumption;? (2) the construction of value surrounding actual household possessions; and (3) their understanding of what the material sphere and its expansion means in terms of Amishness and its future.