Modest Dress As Literacy Practice in English-Speaking Conservative Mennonite Groups" (2018)
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University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects January 2018 Modest Dress As Literacy Practice In English- Speaking Conservative Mennonite Groups Megan Mong Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/theses Recommended Citation Mong, Megan, "Modest Dress As Literacy Practice In English-Speaking Conservative Mennonite Groups" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 2290. https://commons.und.edu/theses/2290 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MODEST DRESS AS LITERACY PRACTICE IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING CONSERVATIVE MENNONITE GROUPS by Megan Lois Mong Diploma in Bible and Theology, Sharon Mennonite Bible School, 2007 Bachelor of Arts, Thomas Edison State University, 2010 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of North Dakota in partial ful!llment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Grand Forks, North Dakota August 2018 Copyright 2018 Megan Lois Mong !ii This thesis, submitted by Megan Lois Mong in partial ful!llment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics from the University of North Dakota, has been read by the Faculty Advisory Committee under whom the work has been done and is hereby approved. ______________________________________ John M. Clifton / Chair ______________________________________ Kim Donehower ______________________________________ Douglas M. Fraiser This thesis is being submitted by the appointed advisory committee as having met all of the requirements of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of North Dakota and is hereby approved. ___________________________________ Grant McGimpsey Dean of the School of Graduate Studies ___________________________________ Date !iii PERMISSION Title Modest Dress as Literacy Practice in English-Speaking Conservative Mennonite Groups Department Linguistics Degree Master of Arts In presenting this thesis in partial ful!llment of the requirements for a graduate degree from the University of North Dakota, I agree that the library of this University shall make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for extensive copying for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor who supervised my thesis work or, in his absence, by the Chairperson of the department or the dean of the School of Graduate Studies. It is understood that any copying or publication or other use of this thesis or part thereof for !nancial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of North Dakota in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Megan Lois Mong July 20, 2018 !iv CONTENTS List of Figures . vii List of Tables . viii Acknowledgements . ix Abstract . x CHAPTER 1. Introduction . 1 2. Methodology . 5 2.1. Oral History Method . 5 2.2. The Narrators . 7 2.3. The Interviews . 18 3. Multimodalities: Clothing and Codifed Sign Systems . 22 3.1. Multimodalities in the Digital Age . 23 3.2. Rumsey’s Alternate Understanding of Multimodality in Literacy . 24 3.3. Centering Within Semiotics . 26 3.4. Multimodalities in Mennonite Dress . 28 4. Modest Dress in Literacy Practice: Alphabetic and Multimodal Literacies . 38 4.1. Modest Dress in Literacy Practice: Alphabetic Texts . 40 4.2. Modest Dress in Literacy Practice: Clothing as Multimodal Text . 44 5. Modest Dress Practices as Heritage Literacy . 50 v 5.1. Heritage Literacy Themes: Personal Stories . 51 5.2. Heritage Literacy Themes: Changes in Clothing Styles . 56 6. Identity, Afliation and Social Parallels to Traditional Orthography . 59 6.1. Codifcation of Religious Identity as a Diferentiated Social Group . 61 6.2. Parallels with Traditional Orthography in the Construction of Social Identity . 65 6.3. Multimodalities and the Codifcation of Group Afliation . 69 7. Embodied Texts as Critical Literacy . 75 7.1. Performing and Positioning Embodied Texts . 75 7.2. Modest Dress as a Critical Literacy Performance . 78 8. Conclusion . 82 APPENDICES . 86 References . 126 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Amy’s Outft at her Interview . 8 2. Alicia’s Outft at her Interview . 9 3. Claudia’s Outft at her Interview . 11 4. Charlene’s Outft at her Interview . 12 5. Roman’s Outfts at his Interview . 13 6. Martha’s Outft at her Interview . 15 7. Elaine’s Outft at her Interview . 16 8. Joyce’s Outft at her Interview . 17 9. Screen Shot of Zappos.com . 23 10. Front, Side and Back View of Charlene’s Cape Dress . 28 11. Front and Back View of Claudia’s Layered Outft . 29 12. Claudia’s Veil and Charlene’s Covering . 30 13. Roman Wearing Dressy Clothes and Church Clothes . 33 14. Roman Showing the Hook and Eye Clasps on His Plain Suit . 34 15. Veiling and Coverings Styles . 35 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Mennonite Groups who Patronize Joyce’s Store . 73 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My research would have been impossible without the aid and support of John M. Clifton, who exceeded my expectations for a committee chair. I am thankful to both John and Debbie for opening their home to me and to John for detailed feedback and second mile support. My sincere thanks also goes to Doug Fraiser and Kim Donehower for supporting me on my committee and making my thesis better. I value your input. I am profoundly thankful to all the brilliant academics I have met over the years in my studies at SIL-UND. You are too many to name. Your impact on my life and mind will continue the rest of my life. My deepest thanks also goes to all the staf and professors at Sharon Mennonite Bible Institute. You taught me to love the intellectual coherence of Anabaptism. I am better because of you. I am grateful to each of the eight narrators who participated in my research: Alicia, Amy, Charlene, Claudia, Elaine, Joyce, Martha and Roman. Your words will continue to touch many people. I would like to thank Suzanne Rumsey who was kind enough to read over my thesis and ofer her feedback and support. I appreciate your inspiration. My gratitude to my family knows no limits. I would not be here without your con- tinued challenge to be all that I can be. A special thanks to you, Mom and Giovanni, for your motivation. Lastly, research on Anabaptism would be incomplete without thanks to Divine glory, both veiled and unveiled. ix ABSTRACT English-speaking conservative Mennonites exercise a distinct set of dress practices that are not often understood by people outside the community. Advances in New Liter- acy Studies pave the way to understand their dress practices as a type of literacy. Multiple literacies work together to inform conservative Mennonite dress practices. One of these literacies is the reading and writing of religious texts. A second literacy is a form of her- itage literacy where clothing functions as a multimodal text. Conservative Mennonites use their clothing to codify their Christian identity, gender roles and church afliation. They intend their clothing to represent who they are to the people around them. A con- servative Mennonite woman's head covering is a subversive, embodied text that corrects power imbalances they perceive between masculine and feminine. The results of viewing Mennonite dress practices through the lens of literacy show them to be a coherent sign system that passes between generations. x CHAPTER 1 Introduction Conservative Mennonites exercise a distinct set of dress practices. A visitor to Lan- caster County, a place with a large population of conservative Mennonites, will see Men- nonite women in long skirts and dresses with cloth prayer veils on their heads. This cloth- ing diferentiates them from members of mainstream society and is an important part of their heritage, handed down from generation to generation. Dress practice is integral to what it means to be a conservative Mennonite. Mennonites are part of the Anabaptist family of the Christian faith. Other Anabaptist groups include Hutterites, Brethern and, most famously, the Amish. Anabaptists distin- guish themselves within the Christian tradition by beliefs and practices such as the exercise of free will, adult baptism, the Christian woman’s veiling, non-resistance and the refusal to participate in war (Anderson 2013). Conservative Mennonites are one of three divisions in the Mennonite tradition: Old Order, conservative and mainline (Anderson 2013). Mainline Mennonite churches do not dress distinctly Mennonite and present themselves similarly to mainstream Evangeli- cals. Old Order churches are most similar to the stereotype of Amish, a label frequently misapplied to all Anabaptist people who diferentiate themselves from mainstream dress practices by dressing “plain.” Like the Amish, some Old Order groups still use horse and buggy transportation and primarily speak Pennsylvania Dutch1 at home and among the community. Conservative Mennonites fll the cultural space between the mainline and Old Order traditions. 1 Pennsylvania Dutch is a term local speakers use to refer to Pennsylvania German. I have chosen to use the term Pennsylvania Dutch in this thesis to maintain consistency with the narrators as they refer to the language in their interviews. Pennsylvania Dutch is not a form of Dutch, but is instead a member of the High Franconian family of Germanic, closely related to German (Green 1990). The ISO 639-3 code is [pdc]. 1 Like Old Order Mennonites, conservative Mennonites are “distinctly plain Anabap- tist in their adherence to a consortium of concrete, highly visible symbols” such as the Christian woman’s prayer veil, the non-wearing of jewelry and other clothing practices (Anderson 2013), the topic of this thesis.