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The Hutterites in North America
This case study in cultural anthropology focuses on the day-to-day living patterns of the Hutterites, a German-dialect-speaking Christian sect whose members live communally in the Great Plains of the United States and Canada. The authors describe the Hutterite belief system and how it minimizes aggression and dissention, and protects the members against the outside world.
158 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1967
56 people want to read
About the author
John A. Hostetler
26 books11 followersDr. John Andrew Hostetler, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University, 1953) was a scholar of Amish and Hutterite societies, a Fulbright scholar, and occasional film consultant and expert witness. He retired from the faculty of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) in 1985, and served the next five years as Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, where his wife Beulah also held a teaching appointment.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 29, 2016
Nifty folk.
November 1, 2017
The anthropological study of the Hutterites gives a comprehensive outline and insights into a closed Christian community who have limited contact with the modern world. The Hutterites have a dualistic world view where the natural and the supernatural are divided between the carnal nature of man versus the spiritual nature of man. The communal colony has a very hierarchical existence which is evidenced throughout all the cultural subsystems, social, communication, economic, technology and religion. Positive factors of the Hutterites shown are the stable and harmonious day to day life on the colony. Negative factors include the subversion of the individual, as the group does not allow for any personal expression.
December 16, 2018
This was an interesting historical perspective especially since colonies have started near where I grew up. Yet is was also somewhat disappointing since it was published in 1967. The colonies I grew up near have seemingly made substantial changes from a purely agrarian nature. They now are also actively immersed in commercial ventures. I wonder how that might be changing their culture.
November 13, 2021
Wonderful book about the Hutterites, incleding their history and present definitely worth archiving. Lots of good info on effective intentional community and some of the potential pitfalls.
January 11, 2016
This book is an ethnographic study of the Hutterites as they exist in North America. The Hutterites are the longest-lasting communal society in the world with a wholly distinct culture, ideology, and identity.
The book begins with an explanation of the Hutterite worldview, which permeates just about every single aspect of the Hutterite individual's life. Life is dualistic, sharply divided between the natural and the supernatural, the carnal nature of man versus the spiritual nature of man, the order of the communal colony versus the chaos of the outside world, the divinely ordained order of God versus the world of darkness outside the colony. The worldview is also hierarchical, with the superior always commanding the inferior. God commands Man, Man commands Woman, humanity commands nature and the animals. The younger obeys the older, the holier commands the sinful. The divide between the secular and spiritual is enforced even by language itself in the Hutterite community: In church, everyone speaks and reads and sings in German. In secular affairs and in dealing with outsiders people speak only in English.
While much of the above is not new to us s there re many Christians who believe in those things, there are three things that make the Hutterite worldview distinct. The first is the enforcing of shared property as opposed to private property. The second is the enforcing of agrarian and communal living. Meetings are held before any new technology is introduced, and it can only be introduced on the basis that it will not corrupt the commune (new agricultural technology is allowed, but TV's, the internet, etc are not). The third is the total reliance that the individual has on the community as a whole. The individual does not identify with his nuclear family, or his peer group, as much as he identifies with the community as a whole. This is similar to the Marxist doctrine that the family is a bourgeoisie institution that must be obliterated in favor of the individual seeing everyone in his commune as his family.
The second chapter goes into the day-to-day life of the Hutterite colony. They have a very regimented life, filled to the brim with work. The days go by very quickly. It's the practice of what the author calls "Protestant Ascetism" (hard work for hard work's sake and for the sake of the community and God).
My favorite chapter was the one on socialization. At this point in the book the author tells us that the hutterite individual is eager to go to church, enthusiastic about labor, afraid to be alone, always has a kind word to say to his neighbors, and rarely expresses any deviance in behavior. This chapter explains how they do it, with the entire life of the hutterite individual being a process of changing the natural human tendency of self-preservation into self-sacrifice. Repetition, a disciplinary school system, and religious hysteria can make a person into anything, I guess.
What follows is a chapter explaining why the Hutterites have outlasted other Christian Communal groups such as the Community of Brethren, the Shakers, etc. A clear system of how to form a Hutterite colony,self-sufficiency, and reverence for the Hutterite ideology are how they do it.
This book desires to explain how the Hutterites live and why and achieves that task perfectly. The information is great and it isn't a boring read.
The whole time I was reading this book, the question that kept popping up in my mind was: "Are the Hutterites happier than modern people?". They are closer to nature, to each other, and to God than we are. I consider all of those to be major factors in human happiness. They are also disciplined and, by all accounts, compassionate.
However, the lack of individual expression must, I think, be very hard on the Hutterite. The Hutterites have no literature, no music, no distinct forms of dance, etc because these are all consider forms of individual expression that must be crushed.
I think if the Hutterites would just relax some of the harsh oppression of individuality, they really would be a near-utopian society.
The book begins with an explanation of the Hutterite worldview, which permeates just about every single aspect of the Hutterite individual's life. Life is dualistic, sharply divided between the natural and the supernatural, the carnal nature of man versus the spiritual nature of man, the order of the communal colony versus the chaos of the outside world, the divinely ordained order of God versus the world of darkness outside the colony. The worldview is also hierarchical, with the superior always commanding the inferior. God commands Man, Man commands Woman, humanity commands nature and the animals. The younger obeys the older, the holier commands the sinful. The divide between the secular and spiritual is enforced even by language itself in the Hutterite community: In church, everyone speaks and reads and sings in German. In secular affairs and in dealing with outsiders people speak only in English.
While much of the above is not new to us s there re many Christians who believe in those things, there are three things that make the Hutterite worldview distinct. The first is the enforcing of shared property as opposed to private property. The second is the enforcing of agrarian and communal living. Meetings are held before any new technology is introduced, and it can only be introduced on the basis that it will not corrupt the commune (new agricultural technology is allowed, but TV's, the internet, etc are not). The third is the total reliance that the individual has on the community as a whole. The individual does not identify with his nuclear family, or his peer group, as much as he identifies with the community as a whole. This is similar to the Marxist doctrine that the family is a bourgeoisie institution that must be obliterated in favor of the individual seeing everyone in his commune as his family.
The second chapter goes into the day-to-day life of the Hutterite colony. They have a very regimented life, filled to the brim with work. The days go by very quickly. It's the practice of what the author calls "Protestant Ascetism" (hard work for hard work's sake and for the sake of the community and God).
My favorite chapter was the one on socialization. At this point in the book the author tells us that the hutterite individual is eager to go to church, enthusiastic about labor, afraid to be alone, always has a kind word to say to his neighbors, and rarely expresses any deviance in behavior. This chapter explains how they do it, with the entire life of the hutterite individual being a process of changing the natural human tendency of self-preservation into self-sacrifice. Repetition, a disciplinary school system, and religious hysteria can make a person into anything, I guess.
What follows is a chapter explaining why the Hutterites have outlasted other Christian Communal groups such as the Community of Brethren, the Shakers, etc. A clear system of how to form a Hutterite colony,self-sufficiency, and reverence for the Hutterite ideology are how they do it.
This book desires to explain how the Hutterites live and why and achieves that task perfectly. The information is great and it isn't a boring read.
The whole time I was reading this book, the question that kept popping up in my mind was: "Are the Hutterites happier than modern people?". They are closer to nature, to each other, and to God than we are. I consider all of those to be major factors in human happiness. They are also disciplined and, by all accounts, compassionate.
However, the lack of individual expression must, I think, be very hard on the Hutterite. The Hutterites have no literature, no music, no distinct forms of dance, etc because these are all consider forms of individual expression that must be crushed.
I think if the Hutterites would just relax some of the harsh oppression of individuality, they really would be a near-utopian society.
September 29, 2014
It was interesting and along the lines of a documentary, but became incredibly boring towards the end.
February 29, 2012
Good info; Really boring read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews