Includes bibliographical references (leaves 267-291) and abstract.
Summary
"This dissertation is an examiniation of Amish businessowmen and gender roles in the tourist marketplace of Lancaster County, PA. Tourism in Lancaster is a $1.5 billion business; tourists largely come because of the Amish and values associated with them. Recently, tourism has come to provide an important source of income for many Old Order Mennonite and Amish women, whose business enterprises cater primarily to a tourist market. Among the Amish, known for their separation from wider society, tourism now puts many women on the front lines in dealing with outsiders, a monumental shift historically. Thus, this ethnography of Amish businesswomen serves as a useful lens for examining Amish women's changing gender roles in Lancaster County today." [from the abstract]
Except: "It soon became clear that she didn't want a resaurant experience; she wanted to eat in an Amish home. I explained to her that such places are not regulated by the state and hard to find out about, and that the menu will be little different; there is no particularly distinctive Amish cuisine. 'Yes, yes,' she interrupted, 'but doesn't it taste better down on the farm?' As this interaction demonstrates, tourists often seek farm-table meals. They bring particular expectations to eating in an Amish home. A mystique surrounds the experience. Food is expected to taste better; eating is deemed more authentic, and cooking the outcome of traditional, hard-working labor. It is as if food cooked and served by Amish on the farm takes on the positive qualities often associated with the Amish themselves: simplicity, old-fashioned (in the best sense of the word), time-consuming (Amish as the original 'slow food' movement), and wholesome (presumed to be organic, but usually not). It amounts to a kind of Amish 'gastro-authenticity,' if you will...An extended vignette from my research elaborates on this theme."
