Ethnic Mennonite

The term Ethnic Mennonite refers to Mennonites of Central European ancestry and culture who are considered to be members of a Mennonite ethnic or ethno-religious group.[1][2] The term is also used for aspects of their culture, such as ethnic Mennonite food like Pfeffernüsse, Borscht and Tweebak.

History

The most prominent ethnic Mennonite groups are Russian Mennonites (German: Russland-Mennoniten), who formed as an ethnic group in South Russia (now Ukraine), but who are of Dutch and German ancestry and speak Plautdietsch and Mennonites of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage who formed as an ethnic group in North America and who are of Swiss-German and German ancestry.

Because Mennonites for centuries almost only married inside their churches, they developed into ethnic groups in Russia since 1789 and in North America since the 1730s, where for a long time almost all of them kept their ethno-languages Pennsylvania German and Plautdietsch.[3]

Until the middle of the 1950s the vast majority of Mennonites were of Central European ancestry and culture, all the same if they were conservative or modern and all the same if they lived in Europe, North America, Mexico, Paraguay or in Brazil. Since then, missionary activities of Mennonites led to so many converts in Africa, India, Indonesia and other places outside Europe and North America that, in 2012, a majority of Mennonites are not of Central European heritage anymore.[4]

Some conservative strains of Mennonites, like the Old Order Mennonites and the Old Colony Mennonites have kept their languages, traditional customs and the practice of endogamy until today, so that they are considered to be ethnic or ethno-religious groups. The same is true for the Hutterites and the Amish who are Anabaptists like the Mennonites, but have never engaged in mission activities on a larger scale.

In the last years some discussions have arisen around the term "ethnic Mennonite" and about the fact itself.[5][6][7][8][9]

Literature
  • Francis, E. K.: The Russian Mennonites: From Religious to Ethnic Group in American Journal of Sociology Vol. 54, No. 2 (Sep., 1948), pp. 101–107.
  • Loewen, Royden: The Poetics of Peoplehood: Ethnicity and Religion among Canada's Mennonites in Paul Bramadat, David Seljak: Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada, 2008.
  • Redekop, John H.: A People Apart: Ethnicity and the Mennonite Brethren, 1987.

References
  1. "Part I - Mormons as an Ethno-Religious Group - University Publishing Online". ebooks.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  2. Hammond, Phillip E. (2000). The Dynamics of Religious Organizations: The Extravasation of the Sacred and Other Essays. Oxford University Press. p. 59. ISBN 9780198297628. 1. Religion is the major foundation of ethnicity, examples include the Amish, Hutterites, Jews, and Mormons. Ethnicity in this pattern, so to speak, equals religion, and if the religious identity is denied, so is the ethnic identity. [Footnote: In actuality, of course, there can be exceptions, as the labels "jack Mormon," "banned Amish," or "cultural Jew" suggest.] Let us call this pattern "ethnic fusion."
    2. Religion may be one of several foundations of ethnicity, the others commonly being language and territorial origin; examples are the Greek or Russian Orthodox and the Dutch Reformed. Ethnicity in this pattern extends beyond religion in the sense that ethnic identification can be claimed without claiming the religious identification, but the reverse is rare. Let us call this pattern "ethnic religion."
    3. An ethnic group may be linked to a religious tradition, but other ethnic groups will be linked to it, too. Examples include Irish, Italian, and Polish Catholics; Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Lutherans. Religion in this pattern extends beyond ethnicity, reversing the previous pattern, and religious identification can be claimed without claiming the ethnic identification. Let us call this pattern "religious ethnicity"
  3. "Ethnicity". gameo.org.
  4. "World Mennonite Membership Distribution". gameo.org.
  5. "MWR : Stop using the term 'ethnic Mennonite'". mennoworld.org.
  6. "A Response from an "Ethnic Mennonite" – "Stop using the term" - Abnormal Anabaptist". Abnormal Anabaptist.
  7. "Mennonites or Ethnonites?". anabaptistly.
  8. "The Mennonite Game" at Mennonite Historical Society of Canada.
  9. "Just who are the 'Racial/Ethnic' Mennonites?". Young Anabaptist Radicals.
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