TITLE: The Two Worlds of the Pennsylvania Dutch
SPEAKER: Don Yoder
EVENT DATE: 05/05/2011
FORMAT: Video + Captions
RUNNING TIME: 72 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript (link will open in a new window)
DESCRIPTION:
The Pennsylvania Dutch culture, which is now over three centuries old and still evolving, is an American hybrid creation put together from Continental Europe, British Isles, and American building blocks in Southeastern Pennsylvania. While this culture is a unit linguistically, and in most other ways, it is divided down the middle by religion. The "two worlds" are those of the "Plain Dutch"--Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren--and the much large world of the Lutheran and Recorded churches of the German and Swiss Reformates. Yoder illustrates the differences between these two cultural patterns with slides and ethnographic commentary.
Speaker Biography: Don Yoder is a pioneer in the study of American regional and ethnic cultures. Professor emeritus of religious studies and folklore & folklife at the University of Pennsylvania, Yoder brought the term "folklife" to the United States and introduced its present use to the field of study. He has published widely on religious folklife and regional folklife, notably publishing works on the folklife of the Pennsylvania Germans.
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SERIES: Benjamin Botkin Lecture Series
