@phdthesis{318, keywords = {Ontario, Amish, Acculturation}, author = {Hugh Laurence}, title = {Change in Religion, Economics, and Boundary Conditions among Amish Mennonites in Southwestern Ontario}, abstract = {In explaining modernization in an Ontario Amish Mennonite community, this thesis follows Kuhn's model of change in the sciences, detailing especially the interaction of internal religious ideology with outside events. An ambiguous traditional ideology promoted supportive interpersonal relations through objective rules, isolating the individual behind tight boundaries, subordinating him to community discipline. Revivalism, however, introduced an alternative early in the 1900's--salvation through individual piety, not community rules--and opened boundaries. By the 1950's, prosperity and farm mechanization led to increasingly modernized outside contact for individuals, through wage labour and consumer purchases. Anomalous under traditional ideology, these experiences supported the revivalist ideal, and led to its eventual domination. Kuhn explains transformation through the interaction of scientific theory and independent phenomena; we show how new individualized experiences arising when ideological debate opened boundaries resolved questions about the validity of competing ideologies.}, year = {1980}, volume = {41}, edition = {PhD}, number = {Dissertation/Thesis}, pages = {1120-1120, }, publisher = {McGill University, Department of Anthropology, Montreal, Quebec.}, isbn = {04194209}, language = {English}, }