Cultural Survival Of The Amish In The Multicultural America

Under the inevitable tendency of globalization, the significance of the protection of cultural diversity has been more and more concerned by individuals and countries. Protecting traditional cultures has been one of the prerequisites of the national prosperity and development. Multiculturalism has been accepted by more and more peoples and communities as an effective political policy in many multi-national societies.Amish, a special ethnic group in multicultural America, maintain their religion and traditional way of life while resisting a strong influence of the mainstream culture and modernization. They have kept a delicate balance between tradition and modernization with their unshakable faith, unique symbols and flexible strategies of existence. Tradition and modernization coexist in American Amish communities contradictorily and organically. Their fusions and conflicts are guiding us to a new way of understanding modernization, globalization and multiculturalism.This paper is to probe into the causes and strategies of Amish cultural survival in multicultural America by studying the features of Amish culture and the relations between Amish culture and American mainstream culture. The research objectives are: the relations between Amish culture and American multiculturalism; the way in which Amish culture survives and flourishes under the background of American multiculturalism; the significance for non-Amish to learn from Amish cultural survival. Viewing the successful experience of Amish cultural survival, we find that adopting flexible strategies is an effective way to deal with the contradictions between tradition and modernization and the frictions between the national culture and foreign culture. On the one hand, we should establish unique cultural symbols to defend cultural identity and learn to resist cultural aggression with great fortitude. On the other hand, we should dialectically analyze the relations between tradition and social changes. While facing the social innovations and the foreign cultures, we should discard the dross and select the essential to benefit the development of traditional culture.This paper suggests the significance of the cultural diversity and the necessity of respecting and protecting ethnic cultures under the background of globalization. The research of Amish cultural survival is to help the ethnic minorities find an effective way to descend and develop their traditional cultures under the impact of globalization, and help the multi-national countries to decrease the obstacles in the cross-cultural communication. The results of the research will be the implications for multicultural countries to pursue harmonious and prosperous societies with traditional characteristics.Five chapters with conclusion constitute the present thesis. The research, both abroad and domestic, on multiculturalism and the Amish is briefly introduced in the first chapter.The second chapter reviews the relevant research theories. The outline of the Amish culture sketches the subject of the research. The definitions and connotations of culture, including the functions, elements and characteristics of culture, are the theoretical foundation of the research. Cultural Studies provides the research with effective methodology. The origins, causes and development of multiculturalism in the United States clarify the social background of Amish cultural survival.Chapter three and chapter four are the main parts of the thesis. Chapter three focus on the analysis of the conflicts and fusions of Amish culture and main-stream culture in America. The causes, process and results of the conflicts and fusions are exemplified in detail in the third chapter. Chapter four amplifies why and how the Amish culture survives and flourishes with these conflicts and fusions in different aspects including population, language, religion, etc.What and how non-Amish can learn from Amish cultural survival is discussed in the chapter five. This chapter discusses the importance of cultural diversity and why traditional culture should be protected. Relevant suggestions about cultural protection are proposed in this chapter according to the classification of culture.The conclusion summarizes the whole paper with the merits and limitations of the research process and points out the prospect and value of the relevant research.