The Hutterites in North America

CHAPTER 9. Colony Structure, Governance, and Economics

g฀฀chapter 9฀฀G Colony Structure, Governance, and Economics No devoutness, no fear of God, no fruits of faith can develop without workers who cultivate, plant, water, and weed the fields and gardens of the human heart with the Word of God. —Hutterite sermon preface, circa 1650 Work Patterns F or Hutterites work is life and is enjoyed for what it is. Hutterites engage in hard physical labor and for very long hours. They like to quote Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatever work you find to do, do it with all your might.” Hard work is also often seen by the Hutterites as a form of discipleship, a core component of the Christian faith. One Hutterite story saysthatinthe1950s,aCanadiangeneralsupervisingafloodcontrolproject yelled out, “Send us twenty men or ten Hutterites!” The notion of leisure time is almost nonexistent for the Hutterites. Most of them do not go as far as the man in Burton Buller’s film The Hutterites: To Care and Not to Care, who when asked “What do you do for recreation?” responding by saying, “Work harder.”1 But there is a strong, Shakerlike dedication to busyness. Life on earth is short and every minute is important. From an early age children are assigned chores; they help out in most of the colony enterprises. During the summer, there is no idle sitting and 198฀ g฀the hutterites in north america G฀ little time for reading books. Instead boys and girls clean, garden, and run errands. This work is not done for self or even just for one’s family, but for the commune as a whole, and there is strong social resistance to any person or family that focuses too much attention on individual accomplishments. Hutterite colonies are full-employment operations. Proper order and suitable organization ensure a predictable rhythm of life in which everyone learns by taking action. As Michael Holzach notes, “I learned almost everything while doing it.”2 With the heavy work load, one might expect colony members, especially children, to show signs of fatigue or to complain a lot. This is not the case. The authors have seen six-to-twelve-year-old boys and girls working in ninety-degree heat laying lines for new colony plumbing, mischievously kidding each other and telling stories as they do the work. Teenage girls pick raspberries in the middle of a hot summer afternoon, smiling as they relate stories and sing songs. We did not see emotionless people going through the motions with stern looks on their faces. At one colony a family discussion was interrupted at 11:30 p.m. when a load of cattle arrived. Two teenage girls immediately volunteered to get feed for the livestock. They ran into the basement, changed clothes, and were off in a hurry. There was no hesitancy, no complaining, even though both girls had just showered and prepared for bed and were expected to rise the next morning at six o’clock. Mechanized farming has eliminated some of the work that was traditionally done in large groups. Still, outside of the necessarily isolated work of the combine operator and the hog barn manager, Hutterites usually work together. The work is done outdoors, and there is no differential in terms of economic compensation. In a fully communistic society, the business manager does not receive any more money than the mechanic. Work is especially long and hard in the summer months and during the fall harvest. One young bride complained that she rarely got to spend time with her husband. The colony minister’s response: “Be extra kind when you do see him.” During the summer, children and adolescents get up as early as five thirty to work in the garden while the air is cool. Work on Sunday is acceptable if everyone agrees it is needed—especially after the Sunday Gebet, when the minister, business manager, and farm manager often sit down and discuss job assignments for the week ahead. In the winter there are more indoor projects. Women quilt, cross-stitch, varnish, and paint, while men do carpentry work, weld, and repair machinery. ฀ g฀colony structure, governance, and economics G฀ 199 The Natural World and Colony Aesthetics Hutterites know the natural world intimately and feel an attachment to certain places and landscapes even though they do not celebrate nature in verse or song. While walking around her colony, Manitoba Hutterite Julia Hofer keeps picking up plants and insects and smelling...