communistic settlements definition of communistic settlements in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

communistic settlements, communities practicing common ownership of goods. Communistic settlements were known in ancient and medieval times, but the flowering of such groups occurred in the 19th cent. in the United States, where a number of German pietistic sects established such communities as the Amana Church Society Amana Church Society (əmăn`ə)
..... Click the link for more information. , Iowa; Harmony, Pa. (see Harmony Society Harmony Society, religious society founded by German Separatists under the leadership of George Rapp. The Harmonists (or Rappites) held property in common and subscribed to the austere doctrines of their leader, including that of celibacy.
..... Click the link for more information. ); and Zoar Zoar (zôr, zō`ər), village, Tuscarawas co., E central Ohio, on the Tuscarawas River; founded 1817, inc. 1884.
..... Click the link for more information. , Ohio. Similar settlements were founded by the Shakers, Mormons, Mennonites, Dukhobors, and Jansenites. Unique religious settlements were the Oneida Community (see under Oneida Oneida Community, a religious society of Perfectionists that was established (1848) by John Humphrey Noyes . Members of the sect held all property in common and practiced complex marriage and common care of the children. The community prospered by making steel traps and silverware.
..... Click the link for more information. , N.Y.); Hopedale, Mass.; and the Brotherhood of the New Life, N.Y. (see Harris, Thomas Lake Harris, Thomas Lake, 1823–1906, American Christian mystic. Born in England, he was brought to the United States as a child. In 1845 he was called to the pulpit of the Fourth Universalist Society, in New York City, but three years later, deeply impressed by
..... Click the link for more information. ). Other communities were non-Christian, often antireligious and utopian. The leading communities within this group were of two types, those founded by the followers of Robert Owen Owen, Robert, 1771–1858, British social reformer and socialist, pioneer in the cooperative movement. The son of a saddler, he had little formal education but was a zealous reader.
..... Click the link for more information. (including New Harmony New Harmony, town (1990 pop. 846), Posey co., SW Ind., on the Wabash River; founded 1814 by the Harmony Society under George Rapp. In 1825 the Harmonists sold their holdings to Robert Owen and moved to Economy, Pa., where their sect survived into the early 1900s.
..... Click the link for more information. , Ind., and Nashoba, Tenn.) and the numerous ones (notably Brook Farm Brook Farm, 1841–47, an experimental farm at West Roxbury, Mass., based on cooperative living. Founded by George Ripley , a Unitarian minister, the farm was initially financed by a joint-stock company with 24 shares of stock at $500 per share.
..... Click the link for more information. , Mass.) formed on the principles of Charles Fourier Fourierism obtained a number of converts in France, and several newspapers spread the doctrines, but followers failed to establish any lasting colony there. After Fourier's death his principal disciple, Victor Prosper Considérant , tried to found a colony in Texas.
..... Click the link for more information. . Belonging to neither of these groups were the Icarian settlements, led by Étienne Cabet Cabet, Etienne (ātyĕn` käbā`), 1788–1856, French utopian socialist.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the anarchistic villages of Josiah Warren Warren, Josiah, 1798–1874, American reformer and anarchist, b. Boston. An early follower of Robert Owen , he soon rejected Owen's political socialism, advocating instead anarchy based on "the sovereignty of the individual.
..... Click the link for more information. . The religious groups, unified by strong faith and authority, tended to prosper and outlive the secular groups; the latter, however, often attracting brilliant and original personalities, provided a ferment of new thought. The chief attempts since the 19th cent. at setting up such colonies have been in Israel, where there are a number of successful agricultural collectives (see collective farm collective farm, an agricultural production unit including a number of farm households or villages working together under state control. The description of the collective farm has varied with time and place.
..... Click the link for more information. ).

Bibliography

See R. M. Kanter, Commitment and Community (1972); B. M. Berger, The Survival of a Counterculture (1981); P. Yeo, The Work of a Co-operative Community (1988).