Description
Hutterian Brethren
The Agricultural Economy and Social Organization of a Communal People
John W. Bennett
The Hutterian Brethren, an Anabaptist sect that practices strict communal living based on religious principles, is here studies through a detailed examination of six colonies in southwestern Saskatchewan. Unlike the Amish (also an Anabaptist group although only partly communal), the Hutterians do not reject modern technology. Organized in colonies of 130 to 150 people on communal farms, they have flourished economically in the forbidding natural environment of the Great Plains area.
The author’s objectives are to show how one group of typical colonies found their land, established their agricultural economy, and worked out relations with the local inhabitants, and to discover why they Hutterites have been so successful. Among the topics discussed are family and kinship, instrumental organization, agricultural management and decision-making, methods of production, and patterns of change in Hutterian society and technology.
Of special interest is the comparison of the Hutterian colony and the Israeli Kibbutz as examples of enduring communal societies.
John W. Bennett is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Washington University, St. Louis.
This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the original work (ISBN 080470144X). You can find more reproduction works from Stanford University Press at QOOP.com.
Tags:
stanford press, adabaptist, hutterites, hutterian brethren, montana, canada, saskatchewan, communal living, economy, argriculture, social organization, communal people, amish, kibbutz, kibbutzim, mennenites 
