There is a large Amish community around my hometown. By working at the local vet clinic and by being the daughter of a food safety inspector, I have had a lot of interaction with the Amish. For those of you that are not familiar with the Amish, they are an extremely religious group that cannot possess anything that is run by electricity. They usually use horse and buggy as their mode of transportation. The Amish also have very strict rules regarding clothing and facial hair for men. Most of them make a living by farming on small family farms.
Recently, a new law was passed in the state of Wisconsin requiring every premise with any livestock to register with the state and obtain a premise ID number. The reason the state enacted this law was to provide easy tracking of animals in case there was an animal disease outbreak such as hoof and mouth disease or mad cow disease. The Amish greatly opposed this law because it goes against their religion. They believe that once everyone is assigned a number, the end of the world is coming. The state has even taken legal action against some Amish who have failed to register for the premise ID number.
The main issue in this conflict goes back to religion vs. government which has caused many conflicts throughout history. The issue between the Amish and the government is somewhat blurred because the Amish have fought the government before and have been granted exemptions to some things. For instance, they do not have to sign up for the draft because their religion does not believe in war. As our book says, they avoid conflict.
Even though most of the time the Amish use the avoidance style strategy for conflict, I think in this case they used the dominating style. They held many public forums in the Amish community and spoke out about the law. They were only concerned about protecting their religion and not about how this law could increase the safety of our nation’s food supply. Before this law was in place, many Amish threatened that they would stop farming or move out of the state if this law was enacted. The state of Wisconsin also used the dominating style because they were only concerned with keeping the state food supply safe and preventing an animal health outbreak such as the mad cow incident in England. The state was not concerned with staying within the Amish religion.
There may be a way to satisfy both parties that has not been explored. It would have to be something that involved the government identifying premises someway other than the current number system such as, using the current farm address as the premise ID. This would have allowed the government the ability to track animals in an emergency and would not have been against the Amish religion. Because the government did not compromise, the Amish were forced to compromise in some way. Some had the dairy plant apply for the ID number for them. This allowed them to satisfy the government requirement and stay within their religion because they did not apply for the number personally. Those Amish that did not agree with this interpretation of their religion moved out of state or quit farming.
Differences in religion are a major cause of intercultural conflict as demonstrated by this example. What are some other major causes of intercultural conflict?
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I think religion is a good conflict to consider when talking about intercultural conflict because it is a very growing conflict. When people don't agree about religion it becomes difficult to understand their views and reasoning to why they believe what they do. I think violence plays a huge role in causing conflict, and also people not seeing eye to eye about certain things, which in the end will create the conflict and violence!
ReplyDeleteI think religion is probably the biggest conflict between cultures but there are many other causes to these conflicts. For example forms of government can cause major issues. How many countries have divided because certain people did not want to be part of a dictatorship anymore? I also think laws can cause many problems but these can go along with religion or with government. For example, in some countries it is illegal to be homosexual whereas here being homosexual is accepted by the law. Traditional roles could also cause problems. Here in the US women are pretty much allowed to do what they want but there are still many countries that prohibit women from many things. There are so many things out there to disagree about. We're never going to agree on everything so maybe we should fight a little less.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that religion is a pretty major conflict. I like the things that Cheryl has to say with government, laws, traditional roles. Also the person sex.
ReplyDeleteValues, and norms may cause intercultural conflict due to differences between traditions and what the social norms are of that culture. Given people may get offended by what one another are saying or doing solely because of miscommunication of one another. Also conflict may occur just because one person may be completely against others cultures. I do agree with what everyone else has said about religion.
ReplyDeleteSeveral great answers have already been posted, so I guess I will bring the topic of intercultural conflicts in a different direction. I think the most important intercultural conflict as all of us grow up is that of the economic markets around the world. For instance, I joke with my brother about his kids not being able to attend college in 15 years, but many students of the next generations, for example, face a serious issue. And despite my teasing my brother, the issue is not funny. For instance, as economies continue to decline, school loans are going to become tougher and tougher for students to get. Obviously economic failures will impact societies in more ways than just education, but I do wonder what global relations will be like when the global economy reaches its tipping point.
ReplyDeleteGood point Anthony about how an economic downfall can cause intercultural conflict. There are already several examples of this throughout history. For example Germany’s economic downfall after WWI lead to the rising of Hitler and the formation of the Holocaust. It is unsettling to think about what will happen if the global economy doesn’t turn around.
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