Out in the rugged West there are colonies of people called Hutterites who embody the pioneer spirit but live entirely removed from the modern world. The Hutterites are Anabaptist farmers and ranchers - close cousins of the Amish - who, after centuries of persecution in Europe, found religious freedom in North America in the 1870s. Their central belief in a kind of Christian communism informs everything they do. They work, worship, and eat together, and have no personal possessions. They do use computers and high-tech machinery; but they speak an old Austrian German dialect, sew their own clothes, and shun television, radio, or anything else that might let in the temptations of worldly materialism. Hutterites live rigidly structured lives that leave little room for individual expression, but they give this up willingly in exchange for the strong community sup
port that promises spiritual salvation.
Hutterites going about their daily lives -- a dozen women in the kitchen are usually cleaning, cooking and singing. Women put in long hours. Besides all the usual domestic chores, they also have to perform tasks, such as milking for other colonies. No woman has to work extremely hard and can socialize while working. Therefore, most girls and women absorb skills simply by participating in, group work, as they are not allowed to have a personal opinion. Whatever the task at hand, Hutterite men lay it aside for the day's main meal, which is eaten communally. The spotlessly clean dining room holds four tables complete with benches. Usually men and women eat at different tables. The women speak almost exclusively in their German dialect, as most in the colony do when conversing among themselves.
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