Genetic Research In The Heart of Amish Country

FrenchyinOntario writes "Insular, inbred communities like the Ashkenazi Jews and Indian tribes can be a bonanza of genetic information for researchers, and the Amish & Mennonite communities in the United States are proving to be fertile ground as well for scientists who want to better understand the nature of genetic diseases and how rare illnesses occur more frequently in such closed-off communities. The Amish, famous for their renunciation of a lot of technology, are embracing a lab that has been built in the centre of their community because their faith teaches them to "help their fellow man", recognizing that helping scientists better understand the genetic causes of diabetes, mental retardation, and some of the rarer diseases in their families, helps themselves as well as others. For a better understanding of the Amish and their approach to technology, Wired magazine ran an excellent story a few years back better illustrating why they are not just mindless kneejerk technophobes."

Comments

Duh

[afidel]

Of course they are not mindless technophobes. For one thing every member of the sect is given a period in late adolecense where they are to go forth and experience the rest of society before they join the church. This insures that they have made a choice that is at least somewhat informed. They are an interesting group of very deeply religious folk who have very good reasons for believing as they do. Hell one of my favorite vacations was one where I didn't touch an electronic device for an entire week, it was SO much more relaxing than any other vacation I have ever taken that I have to sometimes wonder if I wouldn't be more happy if I were to give it all up and live life in the simpler fashion of the amish.

Somewhat informed?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you spent a single year living as Amish people do, then you'd want to come back here, too. They send them out with little education and little support and no friends in the outside world. Of course they are going to come back after a year. They may think they are giving people the choice, but in the end, it's adding to the indoctrination because they come back thinking that they know what it's like outside their little community.

I'm not criticizing the Amish here. I have no doubt that they mean well by doing this, but it is not a fair way to do the comparison.

Re:Somewhat informed?

[aussersterne]

It's not just education and friends that are missing, either. Having grown up and been socialized in isolation from mainstream society, they possess a disctinctly different set of social skills and a different connotative vocabulary, both verbally and nonverbally.

They lack the correctly formed tools to cope with basic aspects of the mainstream social world, things like dealing with separation and boundaries/emotional distance, the need to be assertive or to tolerate assertiveness in others, the "sixth sense" that most urban and even suburban dwellers develop about crime and dangerous situations, the expectations about what the rights/responsibilities of friendships and coupline relationships are, etc. It's not that they don't have any social tools or skills, it's just that theirs are all applicable to a very different society.

It's rather like traveling to another country--you think it's nice to visit, but for most people, nothing feels as "comfortable" as being "home," for the very same reasons. Of course the difference is that for religious groups, visits outside the group aren't constructed as visits just to "other people" as they would be if an American visited New Zealand, but rather they are constructed as good vs. evil--you are leaving the "good" people to visit and explore the structurally opposed world of "apostates" or "heretics" or "nonbelievers," so the experience is in no way value-neutral, but rather begins with the expectation that the outside world isn't just different (and hence always at least a little uncomfortable), but that it is uncomfortable because of the presence of various kinds of evil presumed to be a property of the outside world, and conversely absent within the group.

Thus, even for the most outgoing, life outside the community, while potentially exciting at first, ultimately seems both frightening and hollow, since nothing (including relationships and interpersonal communication) seems to respond safely in a manner that they expect, understand, or need as social beings, and they attribute this mismatch to nefarious forces.

The problem isn't unique to the Amish, it's seen in children from nearly any intensively lived faith organized into insular communities, i.e. Mormonism, or hare krishna, etc. Even when someone decides that they want to leave the faith, life outside it can be so difficult to navigate and their methods of social interaction and personal development so dependent on its structures that it's easier just to stay inside the group as a nonbeliever.

Re:Somewhat informed?

[petrus4]

>They lack the correctly formed tools to cope
>with basic aspects of the mainstream social
>world, things like dealing with separation and
>boundaries/emotional distance

Right. They don't need to know about "emotional distance," because they live in a society where people from outside an immediate family group actually give a shit about each other. Strange concept, I know.

>the need to be assertive or to tolerate >assertiveness in others,

Yep. Again, because they have a consistent social structure, they don't need to learn how to communicate in an environment where the heirarchical position of individuals is constantly in flux, depending on context. Each individual has a consistent position in the social pecking order, which makes life much easier.

>the "sixth sense" that most urban and even >suburban dwellers develop about crime and >dangerous situations

Again, their society doesn't include things like illegal drug use (and hence, no drug-related crime.) They don't have expensive consumer electronics as an incentive for theft, and being agriculturally based means that virtually anyone is able to get a job, regardless of lack of skill...so there is little incentive to steal.

The bottom line is that in a vast multitude of areas, mainstream contemporary (corporate) American society is sick, degenerate, and unjustifiable. It is also primarily based in nearly every aspect on the concept of weakening and impoverishing the individual almost to the point of death, so that there is no possible chance of said individual being a threat to the homocidal parasites at the top of the heap. Sure, there's a whole heap of *talk* about the importance of individuality...but the intention behind that is actually the weakening of social cohesion...which again, leads indirectly to the weakening of the individual.

By contrast, most non-mainstream indigenous or technologically regressive societies are based on the concept of *strengthening* both individuals and communities, and as such they form methods of achieving this over time. So yeah...anyone coming from one of those societies will experience problems...they'll need to undergo a paradigm shift...From being in a society where the emphasis is on doing things that *do* work to benefit human beings, to being in one (the mainstream one) where the specific intention is to emphasise doing things which are detrimental to human beings.

Re:Somewhat informed?

[dvdeug]

From being in a society where the emphasis is on doing things that *do* work to benefit human beings, to being in one (the mainstream one) where the specific intention is to emphasise doing things which are detrimental to human beings.

If our society is detrimental to human beings, why do they depend on us for medical care? They get their idyllic society at the cost of being dependent on our society. They don't have to fight, because we provide the military that protects them. And anyone too disruptive can be exiled to the real world. They need us to keep their world running.

Re:Somewhat informed?

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Nice to think that, though.

They don't depend on us for medical care, if we withdrew it, they'd go on much as they have before modern medicine was available. They pay for it too, or do you think the AMA sends out doctors to Amishland to treat people for free, because they're all a bunch of big freeloaders? That they choose not to go to medical school themselves means little, did you insist that one of your own family go? Or maybe you're pissed that they don't do any medical research (hey bonehead, this article says that they're participating, in case you didn't notice). Well, if our superior capitalist system is doing its job, the cost of that research is factored in to the care that they pay for.

They don't have to fight, you say? I know, I know. Everyone is nervous that Iraq will invade, and the Amish, well, they'll be sitting ducks. Wouldn't suprise me if that asshole Saddam launches scuds at them filled with kurdish nerve gas.

And what about this exile thing? You obviously don't have a clue, but it's going to be so hard to inform you against your will. They allow people to voluntarily leave. They don't force anyone. Those that are disruptive (which happens very rarely) are usually shunned as I understand it. As long as they're willing to put up with that, nothing more happens. They don't do it for 3 weeks, and if the behavior still hasn't ended, they don't form a lynch mob and storm their house at night.

They don't need us.

The Amish

[petrus4]

The Amish are an extremely important cultural group, IMHO. I'd be lost without my computer, but aside from that I consider them a positive example to the rest of us (at least in some respects) where sustainable living is concerned. I've believed for a while now that despite having had some people laugh at them, it may well be that the Amish themselves will have the last laugh once peak oil hits. Their lifestyle also has numerous sociological benefits as well. It's fairly self-evident that the level of communal interaction is higher among less technologically oriented societies, as well as overall levels of apathy being a good deal lower. People from such communities tend to care a great deal more about their fellow man, and on a day to day basis, as well...not just when disaster hits. The rest of human society could learn a lot from them.

Re:The Amish

[Eskarel]

I agree with some of this, but it's not really fair to base communal interaction on this sort of society because it's a very insular and homogenious society.

Every member of the Amish community is very much like every other member, religiously, ethnically, even gentically(hence this article). Those who disagree with their way of life probably leave the society, there is little conflict, but there is little difference also.

Peak Oil

[josh3736]

I've believed for a while now that despite having had some people laugh at them, it may well be that the Amish themselves will have the last laugh once peak oil hits.

I've read a lot (from both sides) about Peak Oil and I've come to the conclusion that while the end of oil is nigh, the end of the world and civilization is not. The thing that Peak theories fail to take into account is the fact that as the price of oil-derived energy rises, the attractiveness of alternate sources also rises. As more people switch to alternate fuel sources, there will be more incentive for companies to put resources into research and the economy of scale will take over after a while.

So yeah, it's not a good time to buy a new car, but the gears of industry aren't exactly about to come to a screeching halt.

Of course, depending on how rough the transition is, the Amish very well could have a lot to teach us.

Re:Indians?

[Dahan]

"Native Americans"? I'm a native American, seeing that I was born and raised in America. However, I'm not Indian.

A Debian view on the Amish

[g2devi]

> why do they depend on us for medical care?

Think of it like a Debian user does.

Debian has several repositories:
* SID -- contains the latest and greatest, but it can be unstable and things may be
* Testing -- contains those parts of SID that have been around a while don't seem to break anything
* Stable -- contains those parts of Testing that have been around for a while and don't break things. Stable isn't updated that often, but receives constant security patches.

Given this, let's describe how the Amish see it:
* SID -- Geek enthusists who'll by anything new and shiny
* Testing -- the rest of society who'll only use stuff that's actually useful
* Stable -- Amish-like communities who'll only use generally available technology that is both useful and has a positive impact on their society.

Now you might claim that the people who rely on Stable are in this privileged position because of all the people who use SID or Testing. You'd be right. But who cares? SID users are happy on the cutting edge, Testing users are happy with the less wild and wooly pace, Stable users are happy with the tried and true. Everyone wins.