Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T11:22:58.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Who are the Mennonites ?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

James Urry
Get access

Extract

Who do you think the Mennonites are ? What do you think their future will be ? These were the questions I most commonly encountered among older ‘Russian’ Mennonites in Canada. The ethnographer who enters the field expecting to ask questions is a little disconcerted to be quizzed by informants. It is worse, however, when one is expected to pronounce upon their history or to make prophetic statements concerning their future! Yet the questions were asked in all sincerity; suddenly I was placed in the role of the expert and expected to issue a final judgement on Mennonite identity. I soon learnt to be very cautious of providing answers, particularly to the first question. The question obviously involved a search for a Mennonite identity and it was clear that this had a long and troubled history. For a hundred years ‘Russian’ Mennonites have been searching for an identity acceptable both to themselves and to the wider world. This paper will attempt to explain how and why Mennonites have sought different identities at different periods in their history.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , November 1983 , pp. 241 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, A. E., The great Ukrainian Jaquerie, in Hunczak, T. (ed.), The Ukraine, 1917–1921: a study in revolution(Cam-bridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1977).Google Scholar
Bartlett, R., Human Capital: the settlement of foreigners in Russia, 1762–1804 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bender, H. S., The Anabaptist vision, Church History, XIII (1944), 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betcherman, L.-R., The Swastika and the Maple Leaf: fascist movements in Canada in the thirties (Toronto, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1975).Google Scholar
Braun, P., Kto takie Mennonity? Kratkii istoricheskii ocherk (Halbstadt, Raduga, 1914).Google Scholar
Canada: Report of the Royal Commission on bilingualism and biculturalism, The Cultural Contribution of the Other Ethnic Groups (Ottawa, Queen's Printer, Book IV: 1969).Google Scholar
Diamond, S. A., The Nazi Movement in the United States (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1974).Google Scholar
Driedger, L., Canadian Mennonite urbanism: ethnic villages or metropolitan remnant ? Mennonite Quarterly Review, XLIX (1975), 226–41.Google Scholar
Driedger, L. and Peters, J., Ethnic identity: a comparison of Mennonite and other German students, Mennonite Quarterly Review, XLVII (1973), 225–44.Google Scholar
Dueck, D. and Froese, D., Attitudes towards Jews encountered among selected segments of Mennonites in Canada (Unpublished paper in author's possession, 1974).Google Scholar
Dyck, A., Lost in the Steppe, transl. Dyck, H. D. (Steinbeck, Derksen, 1974).Google Scholar
Epp, F. H., Mennonite Exodus: the rescue and resettlement of the Russian Mennonites since the Communist Revolution (Altona, D. W. Friesen, 1962).Google Scholar
Epp, F. H., An analysis of Germanism and National Socialism in the Immigrant Newspaper of a Canadian minority group, the Mennonites, in the 1930s (Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, University of Minnesota, 1965).Google Scholar
Epp, F. H., Mennonites in Canada, 1776–1920: the history of a separate people (Toronto, Macmillan, 1974).Google Scholar
Epp, F. H., Problems of Mennonite identity: a historical survey, in Driedger, L. (ed.), Canadian Ethnic Mosaic (Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1978).Google Scholar
Francis, E. K., The nature of the ethnic group, American Journal of Sociology, LII (1947). 393–400CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, E. K., In Search of Utopia: the Mennonites in Manitoba (Altona, D. W. Friesen, 1955).Google Scholar
Friesen, J., The relationship of Prussian Mennonites- to German nationalism, in Loewen, H. (ed.), Mennonite Images (Winnipeg, Hyperion Press, 1980).Google Scholar
Friesen, M. W., Kanadische Mennoniten bezwingen eine Wildnis. 50 Jahre Kolonie Menno, Chaco (Paraguay) 1927–1977 (Asuncion, Artes Graficas Zamphitopolos, 1977).Google Scholar
Friesen, P. M., Die Alt-Evangelische Mennonitische Brüderschaft in Russland (1789–1910) im Rahmen der Mennoniten Gesamt-geschichte (Halbstadt, Raduga, 1911).Google Scholar
Gunther, W., Heidebrecht, D. P. and Peters, G. J., ‘Onsi Tjedils’: Ersatzdienst der Mennoniten in Russland unter den Romanows (Yarrow, British Columbia, Columbia Press, 1966).Google Scholar
Horsch, J., The Mennonites in Europe (Scottdale, Herald Press, 1950).Google Scholar
Isaak, F., Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte derselben (Halbstadt, H. J. Braun, 1908).Google Scholar
Janz, B. B., Bin ich Nationalsozialist ? Bewahre Der Bote 15, 01 11, 1939, p. 1.Google Scholar
Juhnke, J. C., A People of Two Kingdoms: the political acculturation of the Kansas Mennonites (Newton, Faith and Life Press, 1975).Google Scholar
Kamensky, W., Vopros ili nedorazumenie? (Moscow 1895).Google Scholar
Klaassen, W., Anabaptism: neither Catholic nor Protestant (Waterloo, Conrad Press, 1973).Google Scholar
Klaus, A. A., Nashi Kolonii: opyty i materialy po istorii i statistike inostrannoi kolonozatsii v Rossii, vypusk 1. (St. Petersburg, V. V. Nusval't, 1869).Google Scholar
Krahn, C., Views on the 1870 migrations by contemporaries, Mennonite Quarterly Review, XLVIII (1974), 447–58.Google Scholar
Lichdi, D. G., Mennoniten im Dritten Reich. Dokumentation und Deutung (Pflaz, Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 1977).Google Scholar
Neufeld, D., A Russian Dance of Death: revolution and civil war in the Ukraine, transl. and ed. Reimer, A. (Winnipeg, Hyperion Press, 1977).Google Scholar
Palij, M., The Anarchism of Nestor Machno, 1918–1921: an aspect of the Ukrainian revolution(Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1976).Google Scholar
Peters, V., Nestor Makhno: the life of an anarchist (Winnipeg, Echo Verlag, 1970).Google Scholar
Pipes, R., The Formation of the Soviet Union: communism and nationalism 1917–1923 (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1964).Google Scholar
Pistohlkors, G. von, ‘Russifizierung’ und die Grundlagen der deutschbaltischen Russophobie, Zeitschrift für Ostforschung, XXV (1976), 618–31.Google Scholar
Porter, J., Ethnic pluralism in Canadian perspective, in Glazer, N. and Moynihan, D. P. (eds), Ethnicity: theory and experience (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1975).Google Scholar
Quiring, (J.) W., Mennonitisches Volk, Der Bote 11, 05 23, 1934, p. 2.Google Scholar
Quiring, (J.) W., Artfremdes Blut ist Gift, Der Bote 13, 04 15, 1936, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar
Rempel, D. G., The expropriation of the German colonists in south Russia during the Great War, Journal of Modern History, IV (1932). 49–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rempel, D. G., ‘Slavische’ und ‘russiche’ Mennoniten, Der Bote 21, 05 18, 1965. PP 3–4Google Scholar
Rempel, D. G., A response to the Lost Fatherland review, Canadian Mennonite, 08 13, 1968, pp. 7–12.Google Scholar
Rempel, D. G., The Mennonite commonwealth in Russia: a sketch of its founding and endurance, 1789–1919 (privately printed: the author, 1974) [appeared originally in Mennonite Quarterly Review, XLVII (1973), 259–308; XLVIII (1974), 5–54].Google Scholar
Rempel, J. G. and , D. G., Of things remembered: recollections of war, revolution and Civil War 1914–1920 (Unpublished manuscript in the author's possession, n.d.).Google Scholar
Riasanovsky, N., Nicholas I and Official Nationality in Russia, 1825–1855 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1959).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritter, E., Das Deutsche Ausland-Institut in Stuttgart 1917–1945. Ein Beispiel Deutscher Volkstumsarbeit zwischen den Weltkriegen (Weisbaden, Franz Steiner, 1976).Google Scholar
Ryder, N. B., The interpretation of origin statistics, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXI (1955), 466–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawatsky, W., What makes Russian Mennonites Mennonite ? Mennonite Quarterly Review, LIII (1979), 5–20.Google Scholar
Sawatzky, H. L., They Sought a Country: Mennonite colonization in Mexico (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, G. P., Miracles of Faith and Judgement (the author, 1974).Google Scholar
Schroeder, H., Vom Wesen des friesischen Volksstammes, Der Bote 11, 09 12, 1934, p. 2.Google Scholar
Schroeder, H., Russlanddeutsche Friesen (Dolstadt, Selbstverlag, 1936).Google Scholar
Schroeter, G., In search of ethnicity: multiculturalism in Canada, Journal of Ethnic Studies, VI (1978), 98–107.Google Scholar
Séguy, J., Les assemblées anabaptistesmennonites de France (Paris, Mouton E.H.E.S.S.]), 1977.Google Scholar
Stayer, J. M., Reflections and retractions on Anabaptists and the Sword, Mennonite Quarterly Review, LI (1977), 196–212.Google Scholar
Stayer, J. M., Packull, W. A. and Deppermann, K., From monogenesis to polygenesis: the historical discussion of Anabaptist origins, Mennonite Quarterly Review, XLIX (1975), 83–121.Google Scholar
Tabori, P., The Anatomy of Exile: a semantic and historical study (London, Harrap, 1972).Google Scholar
Thiessen, J., Studien zum Wortschatz der kanadischen Mennoniten (Marburg, N. G. Elwert, 1963).Google Scholar
Toews, J., Mennonitischer Deutscher oder Deutscher Mennonit ? Der Bote 13, 03 4, 1936, p. 3.Google Scholar
Toews, J. B., Lost Fatherland: the story of the Mennonite emigration from Soviet Russia, 1921–1927 (Scottdale, Herald Press, 1967).Google Scholar
Toews, J. B., With Courage to Spare (Hillsboro, Mennonite Brethren Board of Literature, 1978).Google Scholar
Tolstoy, N., Victims of Yalta (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978).Google Scholar
Urry, J., The closed and the open: social and religous change amongst the Mennonites in Russia (1789–1889) (Unpublished D. Phil, thesis, Oxford University, 1978).Google Scholar
Velitsyn, A. A., Nemtsy v Rossii. Ocherk istoricheskago razvitiia i nastoischago polozheniia nemetskikh kolonii na yuge i vostoke Rossii (St Petersburg, Izdanie russkago vestnika, 1893).Google Scholar
Wagner, J. F., Transferred crisis: German Volkish thought among Russian Mennonite immigrants to western Canada, Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, I (1974), 202–20.Google Scholar
Wagner, J. F., The Deutscher Bund Canada 1934–9, Canadian Historical Review, LVII (1977), 176–200.Google Scholar
Williams, G., The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1962).Google Scholar