Hacker News Reader

That's so weird... I lived near the Amana Colonies (in Grinnell, and then Iowa City) for 15 years, and always assumed they were Amish. Love that place!

View on HN

Did you live in Grinnell, or go to the college? If you weren't a student I could understand. If you were a student, why didn't you ask Prof. Andelson? He did his PhD work in the colonies.

The colonies are definitely a good place to visit. Tho' you have to travel a bit further and look carefully to begin to pierce the veil they put up for outsiders. Even then, you are still an outsider.

Went to the college. Actually took basic anthropology from Prof. Andelson, back in the '80s. But that wasn't about his own research, that was the usual intro-class stuff.

Ah, OK. Tho', I never took Andelson's class ... Learned about the Amanas through independent research.

As for the Amish, they're here in NY. Not what you would think. A good start is Amish Society, by Hostetler.

There are plenty of Amish in southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, too. I have a hard time telling Amana from Amish by looking, although I could easily tell Amana and Mennonites apart when I lived near them in Iowa.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com