Sameness Within the Amish Settlements in Wisconsin

This paper examines the sameness concept to study time journeys in Wisconsin’s Kingston-Dalton Amish settlement. Visible landscape change or sameness within Amish settlements is unlike what may be identified within many other rural communities. The village of Kingston that is surrounded by Amish farms displays a different typology of sameness, with several shuttered stores, closed school, and falling population. While we can view the Amish “sameness” given their preservation of old-fashioned farming practices, including horse-drawn wagons and plows, their community is growing—new houses, new barns, new stores, and more people. Wisconsin has gained sixty new Amish settlements since 1960, replacing prior farm occupants. This chapter discusses how the Amish display “sameness” in certain ways, reshaping the environment to perpetuate old traditions while introducing other practices that are entirely new. The presence of the Amish alters the expression of “sameness” within the broader local community.