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The Complexity of Labor Exchange Among Amish Farm Households in Holmes County, Ohio

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The Complexity of Labor Exchange Among Amish Farm Households in Holmes County, Ohio THE COMPLEXITY OF LABOR EXCHANGE AMONG AMISH FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN HOLMES COUNTY, OHIO DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Scot Eric Long, B.S., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2003 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Richard H. Moore, Adviser Professor Deborah Stinner ___________________________ Adviser Professor Richard Yerkes Anthropology Graduate Program ABSTRACT Economic success for the Amish is due, in part, to labor exchange practices and other similar communal sharing practices. While the topic of labor exchange has been given a fair amount of attention by social scientists in many settings, there have been no labor exchange studies on the Old Order Amish from an anthropological perspective. Specifically, this research project considers aspects of labor exchange and its relationship to farm production from an empirical analysis of two Old Order Amish church districts in Clark Township in the southeast portion of Holmes County, Ohio. The unit of analysis is the Amish farm “household” consisting of a family of three or four generations engaging in an intensive type of agriculture as defined by Netting (1993:28- 29). Although the data collected represents farm labor inputs of individual households within the two separate church districts, the focus of this dissertation is both an examination of how Amish farm families share labor at the household level and an examination of how labor is shared among member households of the community. The latter includes organized and seasonal labor exchange, such as grain threshing or silo- filling; informal and occasional labor exchange, such as “frolics” or work gatherings by collateral family and neighbors; mutual aid, multi-community labor exchange, such as a barn raising; and labor exchange outside of agriculture yet vital to the farming community, such as schoolhouse cleaning by family members in a parochial district. ii The main hypothesis of this dissertation proposes that Amish farmers engage in labor exchange activity in order to pool human capital so that the combined work output is greater than the amount of labor that each farmer could accomplish individually. The second hypothesis contends that the traditional dichotomy between labor sharing and commodification of labor in Amish society is moving toward greater commodification of labor along with farm intensification, population pressure, and local economic expansion. The methodology for this ethnographic research uses both quantitative and qualitative data collection of labor exchange among farmers in two Amish church districts from July 1998 through June 1999. The quantitative portion employs a survey instrument using interview techniques for gathering specific details regarding labor exchange practices. Key informant interviews and participant observation make up the qualitative data collection with the goal of obtaining cultural arrangements of labor exchange practices. Secondary data of household census material from the Ohio Amish Directory serves the purpose of obtaining broader demographics as a baseline of Amish families. Sahlins’ domestic mode of production will be used as a basis of comparison for labor exchange between and among households (1972: 91-135). Further, Netting’s concept of reciprocity is examined in terms of labor flow (1993:194-197), which can be both flexible and subject to variation in scheduling (Wilk & Netting 1984: 5-9). iii Dedicated to my wife Cynthia for her unyielding support, and to my son Casey and daughter Olivia for their own brand of inspiration. Also dedicated to my father Donald E. Long for his encouragement of academic pursuits and helping initiate my interest in research. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Richard Moore, for his encouragement, intellectual support, and help on matters of theoretical grounding that he finds so enjoyable. I am also appreciative of Dr. Moore for initially sharing his field site in Holmes County and for introducing me to key individuals that aided in this research effort. Thanks to Ben and Deborah Stinner for giving me the opportunity to work with the Agroecology Team at OARDC on multidisciplinary projects relevant to this thesis. I thank Dr. Richard Yerkes and Dr. Amy Zaharlick for guidance in doing fieldwork for this project among the Amish people and help in designing a sound methodological basis for data collection. v VITA July 29, 1956 ................................... Born - Cincinnati, Ohio 1983 ................................................ B.S.Ed., Ohio University, Athens 1984-1987 ....................................... Social Services Program Director, Lancaster Fairfield Community Action, Lancaster, Ohio 1991 ................................................ M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus 1991-1993 ....................................... Associate Editor, Farmweek Newspaper, Knightstown, Indiana 1991-1994........................................ Adjunct Instructor of Communication, Anderson University, Anderson, Indiana 1995-1998 ....................................... Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus 1998 ................................................ Research Assistant, Agroecology Team, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster 1999 ................................................ Adjunct Instructor of Cultural Anthropology, Wright State University, Fairborn, Ohio 2000-2003 ....................................... Contributing Editor, Agriculture and Industry, West Virginia Encyclopedia, West Virginia Humanities Council, Charleston, WV PUBLICATIONS 1. Moore, Richard H., Scot E. Long & Midori DeLeon, “Economics of Amish Agriculture,” CD-ROM interactive software game designed as a teaching aid for high school and undergraduate students with a focus on cross-cultural understanding, sustainable agriculture, and traditional knowledge; Ohio State University ACCAD, 1999. vi FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Anthropology Areas of Study: Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Ecology, Economic Anthropology, Sustainable Agriculture, Anthropology of Religion, Traditional Knowledge Systems, Applied Anthropology, Social Organization. vii Abstract .................................................................................................……….……… ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ...........................................................................................………………... iv Acknowledgments .............................................................................………………..... v Vita ...................................................................................................……………….... vi List of Tables ....................................................................................………………..... x List of Figures .............................................................................……………….......... xi Chapters: 1. Introduction ........................................................................………………...............1 1.1 A brief history of the Amish .............................................…………….....…...3 1.2 Amish ethnography ..............................................................…………….........5 1.3 The Holmes County settlement region .....................................………….…....8 1.3.1 Land tenure and settlement pattern ..................……….........................10 1.4 Church districts in this study ...................................……………....................15 1.5 Labor exchange types .....................................…………….........................…17 2. Review of Literature..................................…...............................…………….....…21 2.1 Published work on the Amish in Ohio .....................................……………....24 2.2 Literature specific to labor exchange .....................................…...……….......27 3. Methodology .........…........................................................……………....................31 3.1 Farm household as unit of analysis ...….................….…................……..…....33 3.2 Participant observation of labor exchange activity ..........………….......…......34 3.3 Key informant interviews .................................…………..............…..............38 3.4 Use of maps .........…….......................…..........................…………….............39 3.5 Photography as a method….……............................…………............…..........41 4. Theoretical Grounding .......................................................…….…………..…........47 4.1 Cultural Ecology and Amish labor exchange .......................…..……………..48 4.1.1 Netting and smallholder perspective……………..……...……………..52 4.2 Visual neighborhood concept..........................……..........................................56 4.3 Kinship, descent and land tenure ................………...............……...……........60 4.4 Economics and labor exchange………………………………………………..65 4.4.1 Traditional agriculture and underproduction……………….…..……...68 viii 5. Structured Amish Group Labor....….............………….......................................…72 5.1 Farm labor-sharing rings....…..............…………….........................…...........77 5.2 Husker ring--an innovation...........…….........................………..................…82 5.3 Mutual-aid labor sharing......................……............……………....................87 5.4 Economics of Amish mutualism..............……………....................................90
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