The Amish community have experiences that are different compared to the Australian society in

gender, authority and technologies. Whilst there are differences there are also similarities within my
micro, meso and macro world. The Amish are a community based largely in North America that are
well known for their isolation of mainstream society. This is shown in how they interact with themes
such as how they view gender and utilise authority and technology. The Australian society that I live
in is viewed as a modernised mainstream society that the Amish community is against. I will be going
through the differences and similarities portrayed in both the Amish community and Australian
society.

Today I will start by talking about gender in my own and Amish society and culture. Gender is the
socially constructed differences between females and males. In my macro world, gender roles are
evolving and changing every day and at times, stereotypical gender roles are being broken. For
example, women are increasingly becoming the main source of income for their families and men
have the choice to stay at home and be the primary caregiver to children. On the other hand, gender
roles are traditional, clearly defined and adhered to in Amish culture on a micro, meso and macro
level. For example, men are the only source of income and women stay at home to do housework
and look after the kids. Whereas this aspect is similar to my micro world, where my mum stays at
home and my dad works, the main difference is the freedom of choice. Gender roles in the Amish
society are not something that is flexible compared to my micro world, where everyone has the
choice to partake in gender stereotypes.

Now I will go over to the concept and role of authority within Amish culture. Like in gender, I will
show the differences and similarities in comparison to my own cultural experiences. Authority is the
right to make decisions and settle issues and disputes in society. Firstly, the main similarity I found
within both cultures was surrounding the idea that elders possess the highest level of authority,
particularly in family structures. In both cultures, there is an expectation that elders hold the most
knowledge and so their authority should be respected. The major difference between my own
culture and Amish culture is that the micro, meso and macro levels in Amish culture don’t have
much separation. For example, the bible is the main source of authority for Amish people and this
infiltrates the micro, meso and macro worlds. This includes how they interact with their family
members to how they dress, their education and employment. While in Amish culture, religion is the
primary source of authority, in my society there are many forms of authority, both religious and non-
religious.

I will now talk about the role of technologies in both my own and the Amish society and cultures.
Simply, technology can be defined as tools that make tasks easier, enhancing the natural ability of
persons to perform these tasks. In my research I struggled to find many similarities since the Amish
have a closed community and there are strict rules around the usage of technologies. However, one
similarity I found was regarding the use of modern farming technology. Additionally, they are now
permitted to use telephones under specific circumstances. Amish culture is selective about the types
of technology they use, not because they think it’s evil but rather because they don’t want it to harm
their close-knit community. They prefer to use horse-drawn buggies as a form of transportation
whereas in my society, the use of motorised vehicles are the main mode of transportation. In my
society, it is extremely common for individuals to own personal mobile devices which is used to
interact with their micro, meso and macro worlds on a daily basis. In contrast to my culture, the
Amish have very minimal access to common technologies. While they are permitted access to some
modern technologies, they are forbidden to own them.

Today I have talked about gender, authority and technologies on a micro, meso and macro level to
explore the variety of differences and similarities between my own and Amish society and culture.
Through my cross-cultural research, I have discovered that while there are many differences, there
are also some similarities.