Life in a Hutterite Colony: An Outsider's Experience and Reflections on a Forgotten People in Our Midst

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The,  Oct, 2000  by Donald W. Huffman

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

To be sure, life in a Hutterite colony is not perfect; it is not a utopia, as their minister reminded me a number of times. Most of us in wider society, including myself, would have problems living in a similarly isolated world where individual freedom is stifled and where absolute conformity to centuries-old rules determine how one lives from day to day. Hostetler is perceptive as he elaborates on this point: "For most moderns, the Hutterite colony has no appeal. For persons who have been raised to maximize the self, it would be a prison, and no less so for those who equate private ownership with the Christian religion. Young people who seek an alternative lifestyle are unprepared for what they find among Hutterites, Self-surrender does not appeal to most" (1983, p. 45).

In wider American society we would also have problems with living in a patriarchal society where women's roles are traditional in every sense of the word. While, as I discovered, many Hutterite women are bright and talented and appear to be content with the roles that they are socialized into from the moment of their birth, it is clear that their talents and skills beyond traditional wife/mother/servant roles are not given expression in colony life. They cannot hold leadership positions in the colony other than the head cook and head seamstress. These are the highest colony positions to which women can aspire. They do not have the vote when it comes to election of colony leaders such as minister, steward and farm manager. The women walk behind the men on the way to all colony functions such as the evening worship service. They obediently wait upon the men. The home is their primary environment and the area where they have the most power in their lives.

To be sure, the Hutterite colonies themselves will no doubt continue to experience difficulties, including tensions between themselves and those who compete with them for scarce resources. "The pressure for affluent living will continue to surround them. A variety of fundamentalists and sects will continue to try to convert their weaker members. (Even) cattle thieves and swindlers will prey on their colonies" [10] (Hostetler 1983, p. 46). The above critical comments suggest that it would be difficult to transplant Hutterite culture and institutional forms directly into the mainstream world. My own observations, supported by earlier studies done on the Hutterites, make it clear that it is the very separation from wider society and the intentionally limited size of the colony which make it possible for the Hutterites to both maintain and perpetuate their way of life within the context of the modern, largely secular society which surrounds them.

Having said this, I believe that we can learn much from these "forgotten people" who so graciously invited this outsider to come into their midst to fully experience life in a Hutterite colony. Having addressed this subject at some length in the last section, I would add that I concur with Hostetler who draws his Hutterite Life to a close with the following appreciative assessment: