Essay Sample on Amish: Working Together for Unity & Stability

Introduction

The functionalist perspective refers to the concept of working together to achieve a common goal. The idea originates from the analogy of the parts of the human body that works together to attain the sole purpose of the wellbeing of the body (Wrong, 2018). In a societal setup, the functionalist perspective views society in the angle of its complexity. Each part of the community permanently work together to enhance wellbeing, solidarity, unity, and stability

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The two Amish documentaries, Devil's Playground and Shunned, both support and contradict the functionalist perspective in different ways. In the documentary, Shunned, a group of seven people, chose to abandon their tightly-knit society and embrace an external world. In the process, they have to pay dearly for detaching themselves from the community. They suffer from alienation from the people they love and have close ties. Eventually, they undergo a lot of struggle as they attempt to pave their way into contemporary American society.

The documentary explores various aspects of personal reflection of life amongst the Amish society. The functionalist perspective is evident in the way of life of the Amish community. Thus, the documentary supports the functionalist perspective by addressing the various social aspect of a community working together for the wellbeing of the whole community. It also uses the seven people pulled out of the society as a contradiction to the functionalist perspective. From the analogy of the parts of the body, any part that is shunned away from the body affects the general functions of the body. The section also suffers as it perishes. The same happened to the group that shunned the community and their families. The decision and choice to leave the community were the most difficult for this group.

The documentary, Devil's Playground, explores the Erikson and functionalist perspective in different ways. In the documentary, the Amish children are free at the sixteenth birthday to venture into life opportunities and temptations away from the "English" society. The experience is a crucial life stage of the Amish community known as the Rumspringa.

The children in the documentary find out that the 'English' world does not strictly adhere to social and moral norms. On the contrary, the community focuses on the violation of the social rules. Therefore, the religious strings that are to hold the community together break down. The young people live a life full of immoral behaviors. They worship alcoholism; they are perpetual drugs and sex addicts and pay attention to parties full of unethical activities. The title, Devil's Playground, seems to get its meaning from this experience. Amish society sees the modern world as an immoral world.

The setting of the Devil's Playground is in the Amish culture, which replicates the principles and ways of life of a distinctive 18th-19th centuries societies. The people in this society dress in plain clothes. As a part of economic activities, the male members of the society engages in farming activities while the women stay at home taking care of the children. According to the documentary, the Amish community strives to separate themselves from all forms of conveniences and temptations from the rest of the world. The cultural practices of the people hold the community together. The functionalist perspective is evident from this point of view. The people in the Amish community hold on to each other through secure cultural and religious practices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a close and critical examination of the documentaries, Shunned and Devil's Playground shows both the supporting and contradicting aspects of Erikson and the functionalist perspective. In both of the documentaries, the substantial cultural and religious grounds hold people together. A break from these cultural practices lands people into a state of confusion and cross-cultural conflicts. The people in both documentaries believes that their way of life is the right way.

References

Wrong, D. H. (2018). The oversocialized conception of man. Routledge.