Intergroup Relations

The theory of boundary maintenance is central to understanding intergroup relations among the Hutterites. Colonies are usually located away from urban centres, and members are confined spatially to a block of farmland, with travel off the colony strictly controlled. Relations with outside visitors are usually limited to the community’s leaders. Radio, television, and magazines are banned, and thus outside influences are kept in check. The Hutterites’ economic and social self-sufficiency helps to maintain the boundaries of their colony spatially, socially, economically, and politically. Their settlements can be seen as islands in the modern industrial, urban, capitalist society that surrounds them.

Since Hutterites have opted for modern agricultural methods, economic activity is perhaps the greatest source of intergroup relations. In order to keep up to date, members of the community are in touch with machinery dealers, fuel suppliers, fertilizer agents, and salesmen who deal in feeders, heaters, air conditioning, grain hoppers, and other farm equipment. Outsiders obtain contacts to erect buildings on the colonies. Farm produce such as cattle, hogs, chickens, milk, and eggs must be marketed. The delivery of eggs in the nearby town also provides a select few with an occasional opportunity to shop. Business people are eager to win them as customers since they are steady consumers and suppliers.

The minister and the colony manager have the most contact with outsiders. Each usually has a telephone, and visitors to the colony channel their business through these agents. Since they are influential on the colony council, access can be regulated through them. Managers of cattle, hog, chicken, and crop operations also make contacts outside the colony, and salesmen and delivery trucks bring in fuel, fertilizers, and feeds. Interaction may also occur when mechanics in Hutterite shops repair cars and tractors for neighbours and women sell baked goods and garden produce to outside customers. The extent of these contacts varies, however, and face-to-face interaction with outsiders is relatively limited. Most in the colony seldom visit town.

The Hutterites must especially control contacts made by their youth so that their aspirations do not exceed their colonies’ capacity to fulfil them. A study in 1977 by John W. Bennett suggests that the three leuts have responded to the problem differently. The Dariusleut have relaxed their social order, providing a degree of freedom for young people to make some trips to town, more opportunities to visit non-Hutterite friends, and the chance for some to continue special schooling outside the colony. Some colonies have relaxed restrictions on consumption, allowing private bathrooms, more conveniences in apartments, more automated food preparation, air-conditioned cabs on combines, and the like. The Lehrerleut, on the other hand, have increased their surveillance of young people.

Through the curriculum of the English-language school, students learn about the outside world. The school also provides them with a regular contact from this world since the teacher is usually a non-Hutterite who commutes to the colony each day. School boards generally try to hire someone who will respect Hutterite values. But the teacher dresses in contemporary clothes, is a member of outside organizations, listens to radio and watches movies, television, and videos, and reads newspapers and magazines. He or she therefore brings secular values into the classroom. By their very presence, these individuals represent the outside world to the children, though their influence may be counteracted to some extent by the German-language teacher, who meets with the children before and after school.

Defections from Hutterite colonies are rare. Eaton and Weil in 1955 found that between 1880 and 1951 only 258 men and 11 women had left voluntarily. Over half of them eventually returned, but 106 men and 8 women never did so. Newer, more vibrant colonies have few losses, but older ones with weak leadership may experience higher levels of defection. One small, struggling colony reported that ten young men had left in a period of twenty-five years and so there were few children and growing families. Young, unbaptized men are the most likely to try life in the outside world, but many return. Women have fewer choices in the colony, and some marry outsiders or work for others, especially in rural areas. Intense and effective socialization and a secure economic system make it difficult for Hutterites to survive outside the community without suffering severe trauma.