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

It was startling to me to discover that a group of 130 people, including 55 adults and 75 children, all of whom had unique personalities and talents, could function so well together as a cohesive community. This raised to consciousness a fascinating question: How could such cooperation and obvious unity of purpose exist on a daily basis, given the wide range of tasks that need to be accomplished in order for the colony to survive? One major factor, no doubt, is the division of labor which a number of early socioeconomic theorists, including Adam Smith, Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim found to be a powerful form of social cooperation that simultaneously allowed people to greatly increase their production. The labor of each individual, so coordinated, added to the wealth of all. [2] During my stay in the Hutterite colony I observed such well-defined division of labor and community cohesiveness where carpenters, plumbers, field workers, dairymen, hog and turkey managers and workers, meat processors, machinis ts, feed mill operators, housekeepers, beekeepers, printers, cooks, ministers, teachers, and mechanics all worked in complementary fashion to enable the colony to exist and thrive day by day.

But for the Hutterites the key cohesive factor, as I discovered, is not division of labor, as important as that is to them. It is, without doubt, religious belief, religious practice (ritual), and community of goods that holds them together. Again Durkheim's sociological theory is relevant here. As argued in his Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, religion is another powerful force bringing about social cohesion amongst a tribe or group of people. In his classic definition of religion, Durkheim speaks of it in terms of "beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community... all those who adhere to them" (1965, p. 62). I observed the powerful, binding force of religion in Spring Prairie Colony. For the Hutterites, religion permeates life. From the first spoken prayer before breakfast at 7:00 a.m., to the prayer following breakfast (and each meal), to the daily religious instruction of the children and youth (particularly the focus in the daily 4--6 p.m. German school with a Hutterite elder a s teacher), to the experience of congregational worship each evening, and the frequently heard affirmation in both work and leisure that "if the Lord wills, it will be " religion is the life and breath of the Hutterie colony.

Religion is the key means of social control and is obviously effective because there has been no crime in Spring Prairie Colony in the 20 years of its existence. Admittedly, this is not a utopia. The minister, as leader of the colony, made that quite clear to me on a number of occasions during the long, broad ranging discussions we had each evening. "We are human beings with our frailties. But with God's help, through repentance and confession should there be any infraction of colony ordinances, things [that] can be are made right again." As for shunning, a practice Hutterites share with their Amish cousins, this extreme means of social control has had to be exercised only once in the colony's 20-year history. In this instance, within a week of his isolation (in which meals and lodging were provided the person separate from the colony dining hall), the young man made confession of his wrongdoing before the congregation and was at once fully re-integrated into colony life.