Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
For the past fi ve centuries, many Anabaptist groups
have migrated to rural areas beyond these three states (often
fl eeing persecution) with the expressed purpose of living apart
and staying together. During the Protestant Reformation,
Anabaptists broke from both the Catholic Church and the
new Protestant churches. Followers of the new religion were
called Anabaptists, meaning baptized again, because of their
belief in adult baptism, despite having been baptized as infants
in the Protestant or Catholic religions.
Anabaptists broke from the state as well as the church;
they stressed pacifi sm and soon suffered persecution.
Fleeing persecution, Anabaptists migrated east to Moravia
and Austria, and then to Russia and the Ukraine. Continually
moving to rural areas to live apart, alone, and avoid persecu-
tion, a group of Anabaptists called the Hutterites, named for
leader Jacob Hutter, eventually migrated to North America
in the second half of the 1800s.
Old Order Anabaptist groups are shown in stereo-
typical ways in the popular media, but major differences
exist across Old Order Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites,
and Brethren. The Hutterites are the only Anabaptist
group who live communally (Fig. 4.4). Rather than living
with immediate family on a farmstead, Hutterites live in
colonies of about 100 people, with individuals ranging in
age from infant to elderly. More than 425 colonies are
located in Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota,
Saskatchewan, Montana, and Alberta (Fig. 4.5). In their
book
On the Backroad to
Heaven
, Donald Kraybill and Carl
Bowman explain that the lynchpin of each colony is the
A local culture can also work to avoid
cultural
appropriation
, the process by which other cultures adopt
customs and knowledge and use them for their own bene-
fi t. Harrison explains that cultural appropriation is a
major concern for local cultures because people outside
the local culture often privatize the cultural knowledge of
a local culture, such as natural pharmaceuticals or musical
expression, to accumulate wealth or prestige. Local cul-
tures can thus work to keep their customs and knowledge
to themselves, to avoid cultural appropriation.
Around the world, local cultures desire to keep popular
culture out, keep their culture intact, and maintain control
over customs and knowledge. Geographers also recognize
that through these actions,
places become increasingly important
.
When defi ning a place (such as a town or neighborhood) or a
space for a short amount of time (such as an annual festival) as
quintessentially representing the local culture's values, mem-
bers of a local culture reinforce their culture and their beliefs.
Rural Local Cultures
Members of local cultures in rural areas often have an eas-
ier time maintaining their cultures because of their isola-
tion. By living together in a rural area, members of a local
culture can more easily keep external infl uences on the
outside. It is no accident that we fi nd Anabaptist groups,
such as the Hutterites, the Amish, and the Mennonites,
living in rural areas of South Dakota, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia, respectively.
Figure 4.4
Stratford, South Dakota.
A Hutterite
boy who lives in the Hutterville Farm
colony near Stratford, South Dakota.
© Erin H. Fouberg.
