Shakers, Mormons, and Religious Worlds: Conflicting Visions, Contested Boundaries

Notes

203 Notes Introduction 1. I use the term boundary marker in reference to practices in which Shakers and Mormons engaged that set them apart from the broader culture. Technically, beliefs are not boundary markers, but discourse that explains or voices those beliefs may be boundary markers. 2. Although the notion of a church-sect continuum has been around since the 1920s, the earliest exposition of the current understanding of church-sect typology is found in Johnson, “On Church and Sect,” 539–549. 1. The Shakers in the World 1. Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System,” 91. 2. The idea of “cultural postulation” is derived from the work of anthropologist Melford E. Spiro. Spiro explained that the elements of a culturally postulated view, when “cross-culturally viewed, [appear] obscure and/or arbitrary . . . [and are] not susceptible of ordinary scientific proof.” See Spiro, “Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation,” 96–98. 3. Stein, The Shaker Experience, 23–24. 4. Green and Wells, Summary View, 58. 5. Watson Andrews, “Communism,” Shaker 2:10 (1872): 76. 6. Dunlavy, The Manifesto, 305. For a discussion of Dunlavy’s work as a response to Reformed theology and as a major step in the systematization of Shaker theology, see Stein, The Shaker Experience, 74–75. 7. “Covenant at Sodus Bay, 1828,” MS, WRHSSC I: B-10. 8. “Covenant of the East Family, New Lebanon, 1826,” MS, WRHSSC, I: B-41. 9. “The Covenant of the South Family in the United Society in Enfield, Conn., 1827,” MS, LCSC, box 2, item 3. 10. “A Record of the Covenant or Constitution of the Church at Tyringham, 1841,” MS, LCSC, box 9, item 21. 11. “The Covenant of the South Family in the United Society in Enfield, Conn., 1827,” MS, LCSC, box 2, item 3. 204 · Notes to pages 9–15 12. “A Record of the Covenant or Constitution of the Church at Tyringham, 1841,” MS, LCSC, box 9, item 21. 13. Letter from Elisha Allen to Enoch Pease, 22 Jan. 1833, MS, LCSC, box 2, item 1; emphasis added. 14. See, for example, Thurman, “O Sisters Ain’t You Happy?” 39; and Brewer, Shaker Communities, Shaker Lives, 37. 15. “To Our Friends of the Household of Faith,” 1848, New Lebanon, MS, WRHSSC, VII: B-100. 16. “Church Record, Including Biographical Register of the Shaker Community at Pleasant Hill, Mercer County, Kentucky, 1806–1879,” LCSC, MS, box 2, item 27. 17. “Mother Ann—Vision of Her by a Girl, 1847,” LCSC, MS, box 9, item 138. 18. Four of the remaining, non-active Shaker villages have become tourist attractions and are probably the major public sources of information on Shakerism. William D. Moore points out that the opening of these villages as historic sites represented significant “milestones in the reevaluation of Shaker life and culture,” and the major goal of these sites is “not [to serve] the needs of the sect, but those of the American touring public.” Moore, “Interpreting the Shakers,” 2. 19. Kanter, Commitment and Community, 83–84. 20. Ham, “Shakerism in the Old West,” 163. 21. Nordhoff, Communistic Societies, 198, 193. 22. Stein, The Shaker Experience, 135. 23. In an important, but largely overlooked, study, Carol Weisbrod demonstrated how several utopian groups, including the Shakers, maintained almost total integration with American culture in terms of the legal system. Weisbrod argued that the Shakers designed their membership covenants as contracts that could be honored by U.S. courts. As a result, the Shakers won almost every challenge brought by apostates regarding consecrated property and funds. Weisbrod’s work suggested that, at least in the legal arena, the antipathy between the Shakers and the U.S. government was not as intense as either side portrayed it. Weisbrod, Boundaries of Utopia. 24. “A Dialogue Between Jacob and Esau,” reproduced in Patterson, Shaker Spiritual, 140–141. 25. Stein, The Shaker Experience, 142. 26. Journal of Elder Peter Pease, 1806–1813, 8 Aug. 1806, LCSC, MS, box 17, item 232. 27. Rufus Bishop, “Daily Journal of Passing Events,” 15 Feb. 1830; 15 Aug. 1830, MS, NYPLSMC, item 1. 28. Ibid., 8 and 10 Apr. 1830. 29. Ibid., 8 Mar. 1835. 30. Betsy Bates, “A Journal of Events, Beginning April 7th 1833,” New Lebanon, 18 Aug. 1833, MS, WRHSSC, V: B-128. 31. For a discussion of this phenomenon in a broader theoretical context, see Scott, Domination, 10. 32. Rufus Bishop, “A Daily Journal of Passing Events,” 9 July 1832, NYPLSMC, item 1. 33. Ibid., 16 July 1832. 34. Ibid., 12 July 1832...