Trivia Followup
Sara wanted to know where I found out about the Amish wearing polyester.

Yesterday I was at a seminar for an advanced teaching certificate and the guest speaker was from the university's anthropology museum. The topic for the seminar was how to teach with objects and he brought in a few items from the museum. One of these was a doll from Amish country. It was dressed like an Amish boy in a gray button-up shirt and black trousers with suspenders. Particularly striking was that its face was blank - just plain white. Kind of creepy, actually. The blank face reflects the belief that an individual should not attract attention to one's self because it a form of vanity. The more generic the better. Have a look...(these are female dolls, but you get the picture).

The speaker passed the doll around and asked us to notice the clothing. It was polyester (the one's in the link have a cotton/poly blend). He asked why we thought it was made of this. We assumed because that it was because it was cheap and the doll probably was intended for sale to tourists. The speaker pointed out that the sect that made this doll also wore polyester.

The reason? A form of resistance to the rigid way of life. Polyester requires little attention, that is no ironing. When you have to iron with an iron heated up on a wood stove, ironing a wrinkled cotton or linen garment can be quite taxing. So this particular sect allowed enough flexibility in its rules to allow polyester. He also pointed out that it allowed buttons on the shirt. Other sects would consider buttons as potentially allowing vanity and not allow them.

Likewise, I have seen films where Amish people get around on rollerblades. Just goes to show that each cultural system has its own system of logic and sets of rules that go along with it.

Fascinating, ain't it?

[Now playing: Riders on the Storm :) ]

Addendum: Does this make sense to anyone? I found it while looking for an example of the doll to link to.