So could the Amish conceivably use solar, since it doesn't connect to anywhere? Then they could use electric sewing machines (see, I got costume content in there--:-) ) Sharon C.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dawn Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 12:51 PM To: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] Modest clothing, was FLDS clothing Kate M Bunting wrote: > Curious... I thought the Amish eschewed modern technology, so I would have expected them to stick to natural fibres. > The Amish value hard work and a simple lifestyle and shun worldliness in favor of close community support. This means that in many cases they do not adopt modern technology just to make their life easier or more comfortable or more entertaining. For example, they favor walking or horse drawn buggies for transportation over the automobile. However they will use things like refrigerators in cases of medical need, where medicine must be stored. There may be a telephone on a pole at an inconvenient distance from the house, for emergency use. Electricity is not used because it creates a connection to the outside world, and a dependence on something outside their church and community. For the most part technology and modern equipment is not avoided simply because it is modern, but because the community places more value on simplicity and self sacrifice, self sufficiency and piety than on the comforts of the modern world, and they believe that ownership of material goods like cars or tvs leads to inequalities within the community, and causes vanity and prideful behavior. They accept technology only when it fills a decided need. As for clothing, anyone who's been shopping lately knows that ready-to-wear is rife with polyester and other synthetic fabrics and that good natural cotton and linen and wool fabrics can be hard to come by. I suspect that a lot of poly and poly blends get used because of the ready availability, the slightly lower cost, and the simplicity and modesty of the fabric itself. They're not hung up on "natural" or "organic" or "comfort", the cloth serves to cover the body. To make a special effort to only import natural cotton or linen for clothing would probably be seen as non-conformist, prideful, or self-centered activity and frowned upon. Having lived in all parts of Texas (south, central, and north) I know from experience that natural fiber fabric is hard to come by down there, too. I had problems with one shop that was selling fabric (imported from china) that was labeled as 100% cotton, yet which failed burn tests repeatedly. I told the store manger about it, we even did a burn test together in the store, but they still continued to carry it as (mis) labeled. So my guess is the FLDS ladies probably don't have a lot of choice about what they sew with either. Dawn _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume Internal Virus Database is out of date. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.134 / Virus Database: 270.4.4/1532 - Release Date: 7/3/2008 8:32 AM _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
