In defense of humility and ‘Demut’ Plain Dutch living
Living among both the Amish people of Lancaster County and newer (1949) Colony of Old Order Mennonite Plain People at Kutztown, Berks County, many have admired their “humility” and willingness to live a Christian life in the face of automation and advanced technological ways. Nationally respected for their perseverance, competing with hand tools and actual horse and mule power, their human achievements with limited electrical power are remarkable in our advanced United States civilization. But, most of all, the humility they practice daily in their work ethic among rural Great Valley Pennsylvanians has brought about a desirable Christian attitude that has greatly improved our modern social climate.
They are religious sects whose worshippers do not gossip or pass judgments on their fellow citizens and help out neighbors willingly, without any public acclamation for doing good deeds. Within the Plain Culture of the vast Great Valley, East Penn Valley, Oley Valley and Lancaster Plain, these Pennsylvania Dutch people guide their lives by two German Dialect communal terms: 1) Hochmut (pro- nounced as “hochmoot”) is a high-minded person, and 2) Demut (pronounced as “daymoot”) is a person with humility. For example, a woman who wears an apron over her daily dress exemplifies “Demut behavior,” a person of humility ready to perform work at anytime. Modern women who “dress up” in trendy clothing and jewelry are known to be “Hochmut in their behavior,” guilty of sinful vanity and secular materialism by Plain Culture standards.
Plain People believe that worldly “Hochmut” objectives often compete with daily Christian living practices. Several decades ago, the American public fell in love with the hit Broadway play, “Plain and Fancy,” which extolled the two lifestyles of our Pennsylvania Dutch people. The portrayal of the humility expressed by the Plain sects as opposed to the more worldly affluent behavior of America’s idle rich and modern Worldly Dutch cousins was very distinct and significant in this 1955 Broadway play, now performed annually, but with less fanfare in Indiana since 1986. Thereby, a curious nation invaded Lancaster County and nearby regions of our native Pennsylvania Dutch culture to see and experience the Christian Plain Dutch culture to which they had been exposed in this New York play, “Plain and Fancy.”
Most everyone who visits Lancaster County knows that it is taboo to photograph Amish and Old Order Mennonite people, but they seldom make the connection with vanity and the idea of not making a graven image of God as why they are opposed. In America’s technological culture of vain “selfies” to social media of lives never less lived been so more chronicled, perhaps a person’s true soul and relationship to the Lord is not really being recorded for prosperity. Wearing one’s “Sunday Best Church Dressing” or shortened Sunday’s best to show off “Hochmut” type clothing among Amish and Plain People has never been a vanity problem, since everyone’s garb is uniform.
On the flip side, while the modern world has become victimized by image and fashion, some Catholic schools still prefer their students wear uniform dress that will not detract from lessons or each other. Correspondingly, “Hochmut” style dressing at rural Dutch Country churches is not as ostentatious as in our sophisticated modern urban centers. This tradition of humbleness, established by German Reform and Lutheran churches in the rural Dutch Country, echoes the humility of the ancient Reformation Period, which was more compati-
PHOTO BY RICHARD K. REINHOLD, COURTESY OF AMERICAN FOLKLIFE INSTITUTE COLLECTION
While her father tediously cultivates each tobacco plant, his daughter steers the mules down each row of the tobacco field. The mules obey the fatherís verbal commands, as well.
ble with humbling thyself before God, as the Plain People do every day following their “Demut code of conduct.” Amish and Mennonites do not judge each other according to conspicuous material possessions, cosmetics, fashion or designer clothing; rather, one is known by Christian actions and attitude, a truer reflection of their inner soul.
Richard L.T. Orth is assistant director of the American Folklife Institute in Kutztown.