Ursinus College Digital Commons @ Ursinus College Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection Spring 1978 Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 27, No. 3 Don Yoder Katherine Ann Jarrett Janet Theophano Louis Winkler Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Folklore Commons, Genealogy Commons, German Language and Literature Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, History of Religion Commons, Linguistics Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits oy u. Recommended Citation Yoder, Don; Jarrett, Katherine Ann; Theophano, Janet; and Winkler, Louis, "Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 27, No. 3" (1978). Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine. 78. https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/78 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection at Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SPRING 1978 ;.\ . .~ ~W,:/~}0~ 11i;.: ~:.~~; Contributors to this Issue DR. DO YODE R, Philadelphi a, P enn ylvani a, is Professor of Folklife Studies a nd Adj unct P rofessor of Religious Studies a t the U ni versi ty of Pennsylvani a. Hi pa per in thi s issue was the key note address a t the Shaker Bi centennia l Con fe rence, 1774-1974, held in October, 1974, at the Western Reserve Hi storical Society in Cleveland. It touches o n ma ny common points of reference between Sha kerism , P ennsylvani a Qua keris m, a nd the P ennsylva ni a Germa n communi­ tari a n gro ups, pa rticul a rl y the Ephra ta Society a nd the Harmonites, who deri ved their worldview from a European ource which also influenced Sha keri sm . KATHE RINE JAN JARRETT, Mecha ni cs burg, Pennsylva ni a, is a gradua te student in the Depa rtment of Ameri can C ivili zati on at the Capito l Campus of the P ennsylvani a Sta te Uni versity a t Midd le­ town, Pennsylvani a . In her a rticle she deals with the 20th Century phenomenon of the folk mailbox. Her ma teri a ls were gathered in C umberland, P erry, Da uphin, a nd York Counties, Pennsylvani a - fro m a reas within twenty miles of Ha rris burg. Her work was do ne under the guidance o f Dr. Yvonne Milspa w. JANET THEOPHANO, Philadelphia , Pennsy lva nia, is a graduate student at the Uni versity of Pennsylvani a. Her doctoral studies, done in connecti o n with the Depa rtment of Folkl ore a nd Folkli fe, led to fieldwo rk in food research a mo ng several ethnic communities in the Philadelphia a rea. She is also edito r of Th e Digesf, a news­ letter dealing with research in ethnic a nd regio na l food ways in the United Sta tes. DR. LOUIS WINKLE R, Sta te Coll ege, P ennsylvani a , is Professor of Astronomy at the P ennsylvani a Sta te University. His a rticle in this issue is one of a series dealing with Pennsylvani a Germa n astron­ omy and astrology. It was supported in pa rt by a gra nt from the American Philosophical Society. EDITOR: Dr. Don Yoder ASSISTANT EDITOR: Dr. William Parsons SPRING 1978, VOL. XXVII, NO.3 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Dr. Mac E. Barrick Dr. Henry Glassie Dr. John A. Hostetler Dr. David J. Hufford Contents Dr. Phil Jack Dr. Hilda A. Kring Dr. Earl F. Robacker Dr. Alta Schrock 2 The Spiritual Lineage of Shakerism DON YODER FOLK FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: Mark R. Eaby, Jr. FOLK FESTIVAL PUBLIC RELATIONS: 15 Pennsylvania in the Romantic Age of Tourism Peg Zecher SUBSCRIPTIONS: 19 Neighborhood Influence on Mailbox Style Doris E. Stief KATHERI E ANN JARRETT PENNSYLVANIA FOLKLIFE, Spring 1978, Vol. 27, o. 3,pub­ lished five times a year by Penn­ 25 Feast, Fast, and Time sylvania Folklife Society, Inc., 3 JANET THEOPHANO Central Plaza, Lancaster, Pennsyl­ vania, 17602. $1.50 for single copies; Autumn, Winter, Spring and Sum­ 33 Pennsylvania German Astronomy and Astrology, mer. $1.00 for Folk Festival Sup­ XV: The Gruber-Baer Era plemerlt. Yearly subscription $7.00. LOUiS WINKLER MSS A D PHOTOGRAPHS: The Editor will be glad to consider 44 Advertisements of Urban Healers MSS and photographs sent with a Edited by Don Yoder view to publication. When unsuit­ able, and if accompanied by return postage, every care will be exercised Views of Harrisburg toward their return, although no (Inside back cover) responsibility for their safety is as­ sumed. Editorial correspondence: Contributors to this Issue Dr. Don Yoder, Logan Hall , (Inside front cover) Box 13 , University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19174. Folk Festival correspondence: College Blvd . and Vine, COVER: Kutztown , Penn sylvania 19530. Spring plowing is one of the common cene in rural Folk Festival public relations: Pennsy lvania this time of year. Our cover print Peg Zecher, 717 N. Swarthmore Ave., appeared in Gleasol/ 's Pictorial (Boston), April I, 1854. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081 . Subscription, business correspondence: Box 1053, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Contents copyrighted. Entered as second class matter at Lancaster. Pa. THE SPIRITUAL LINEAGE OF SHAK'ERISM DON YODER Shakeri m wa more than the original creation of the creative spirit of Ann Lee, and it is certainly more than simply the progeny of the French Prophets, the movement from which it ha usually been traced. I Every religiou movement renects not only the experience of its founder but a lso the times of its founding. Furthermore, every religious movement is the culminatio n of a cha in of influences that tart in the past and lead down to the foundation period. Id ea have a way of working them elves out in hi tory, by stage of development, through the minds and lives of creative individuals until we reach the Ann Lees , the founders of specific movement. Shakerism was a product of the 18th Century, but it incorporated within it idea that had o ri gina ted much earlier in C hristian hi story. We thin k of the 18th Century a the age of enlightenment, o f ratio nalism. Shakerism, like Pieti Ill , Evangeli cali m, and Methodism, provided a countervailing force to the Enlightenment, opposin g revelation and inspiration, in this case a new revelation and direct in spiration, over against reason as the a uthority in reli gion . Essentiall y Shaker were inspirationists, and as we will see, came from a lo ng A n Ephrata siSler, Jroll1 th e " Turtel Taube" (1746), chain of inspirationist thought in the history of Christianity. LibrclIY oj Congress. The Ephrata Society shared with Focusing upon it spiritual lineage, I propose in this Alllericull !wkeristll u IJo rtiullilleu!!,e frolll the "French brief paper to analyze Shakerism under the following Prophets' '. threefold divi ion: (I) ShakeriSIll a a y tern of ideas, (2) Shakerism as a way of life, and (3) Shakerism as a n I. ex pre ive culture. The cardina l concept of Shakerism as a system of ideas is that of the duality of the Godhead in male and fe ma le forms, a nd the second coming of Christ in 'The "French Prophets," who evangeli led ng land beginning in 1706, were a radical off hoot of French Hugueno t Protestanti sm Mother Ann. Calvin Green and Seth Wells in their which develo ped in the Cevennes in Southern France after th e revo­ Summary View oj the Millennial Church (1823) spend cati on of the Edict of ant es in 1685. Thro ugh th e Wardleys, who converted Ann Lee, th ey can be a nd usua ll y have been con- much time in defending what they term "the Manifestation idered, even by the Sha kers th emselves, as th e direct parent of th e of C hrist in the Female" . 2 They cit e a long chain of Sha ker Movement. They were also th e parent of the In spirationist Movement in Germa ny which produced the Amana ocicty a nd evidence which takes us to the Deborahs and Esthers innuenced o nrad Bei sel and th e Ephra ta ociety. The mo t of the Old Testament through whom God " did condescend recent treatment of the French Prophets a nd ha keri sm is Henri Oesroche, Th e A merican Shaker: FrOIll Neo- hristianity to Pre­ to reveal hi s mind and will to females, who were then ocialislll, translated a nd edited by Jo hn K. avacool (Amherst, commi ioned, by Di vine Authority, to bear testimony Massachuset ts, 197 1), h. 1. For th e relatio n of the movement to Quakerism, see "Friends and the French Prophets," Th e JOllrnal oj thereof to man". But their authentication of Mother the Friends Historical Society, XXII (1925), 1-9. Fo r the I nspira­ Ann i based in the end on the doctrine of creation. tionist Movement and it s innuence on European a nd Ameri can religio us groups, see Bertha M . 1:-1 . Shambaugh, " Amana ociety," Encyclopedia oj Religion and Ethics, I, 358-3 69; and Do n Yoder, ' Calvin Green and Seth Y. Well s, A Su mmary View oj the MiI­ "Trance Preaching in the Uni ted ta tes," Pennsylvania Folklije, lennial Chllrch, 2d ed ., revised a nd improved (Albany, 1848), XVIII : 2 (Winter 1968-1969), 12-18.