The Amish1  “Amish communities are not relics of a bygone era.
Rather, they are demonstrations of a different form of
modernity.” (John Hostetler, Amish Society)  The Amish are a
protestant sect that split off from the Swiss Anabaptists in the
late seventeenth century; starting in the mid-eighteenth
century, many of them settled in America. Over the years since
their population has expanded rapidly, due to the combination of
a high birth rate, modern medicine, and a high retention rate;
there were about 5000 Amish in 1920 and about 249,000 in 2010.2
They are notable for plain dress and the selective3 rejection of
many of the devices of modern technology, such as automobiles
and telephones. While subject, with a few narrow exceptions, to
U.S. (and Canadian) law,4 they have succeeded in maintaining
their own system of rules (Ordnung) and enforcing it on their
members, ultimately by the threat of excommunication and
shunning (Meidung).  The Congregation  The basic unit of an
Amish community is the congregation,