A detatailed and well written account of this group of Anabaptists. The oldest and largest communal society in North America, the Hutterites—Anabaptists of German origin, like the Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren—have long been the subject of scholarly study and popular curiosity. Werner Packull tells the comprehensive story of the Hutterite beginnings in their original homelands—particularly in Tyrol and Moravia—and discovers important relationships among early Anabaptist sects.
One of the longest-lived communal societies in North America, the Hutterites have developed multifaceted communitarian perspectives on everything from conflict resolution and decision-making practices to standards of living and care for the elderly. This compellingly written book offers a glimpse into the complex and varied lives of the nearly 500 North American Hutterite communities. North American Hutterites today number around 50,000 and have common roots with and beliefs akin to the Amish and other Old Order Christians. This historical analysis and anthropological investigation draws on existing research, primary sources, and over 25 years of the authors' interaction with Hutterite communities to recount the group's physical and spiritual journey from its 16th-century founding in Eastern Europe and its near disappearance in Transylvania in the 1760s to its late 19th-century transplantation to North America and into the modern era. It explains how the Hutterites found creative ways to manage social and economic changes over more than five centuries while holding to the principles and cultural values embedded in their faith. Religious scholars, anthropologists, and historians of America and the Anabaptist faiths will find this objective-yet-appreciative account of the Hutterites' distinct North American culture to be a valuable and fascinating study both of the religion and of a viable alternative to modern-day capitalism.
In 1969, Ann-Marie’s parents did the unthinkable, leaving a Hutterite colony with their seven children to start a new life. Overnight, the family was thrust into a society they did not understand and did not understand them in this powerful story of understanding how our beginnings often define us. “Your mother and father are running away," said a voice piercing the warm air. I froze and turned toward home. To a Hutterite, nothing is more shameful than that word.” When Ann-Marie's parents decided to leave their Hutterite colony in Canada with their seven children in tow, it was a complete shock. Overnight, the family was thrust into a society they did not understand, and which knew little of their unique culture. The transition was overwhelming. Desperate to be accepted, ten-year-old Ann-Marie was forced to deny her heritage in order to fit in with her peers. I Am Hutterite chronicles Ann-Marie's quest to reinvent herself as she comes to terms with the painful circumstances that led her family to leave community life. Before she left the colony, Ann-Marie had never tasted macaroni and cheese or ridden a bike. She had never heard of Walt Disney or rock-and-roll. With great humor, she describes how she adapted to popular culture, and with raw honesty, her family's deep sense of loss for their community. Winner of the 2007 Saskatchewan Book Award for Non-fiction Unveils the rich history and traditions of the Hutterite people’s extraordinary way of life Includes a glossary of Hutterite words and phrases, family photos, and a family tree In this insightful memoir, venture into the hidden heart of the little-known Hutterite colony. Rich with memorable characters and vivid descriptions, this ground-breaking narrative shines a light on intolerance, illuminating the simple truth that beneath every human exterior beats a heart longing for understanding and acceptance.
On June 1 and 8, 2019, Hutterites in Manitoba made history. For the first time since settling in the Canadian Prairie Provinces, a Hutterite with an academic background in history interpreted and presented part of the Hutterite story in front of a public audience. The inaugural Jacob D. Maendel Lectures Series was presented by Ian Kleinsasser in three one-hour lectures at Trinity United Church in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. [From the forward.]
The Courts and the Colonies offers a detailed account of a protracted dispute arising within a Hutterite colony in Manitoba, when the Schmiedeleut leaders attempted to force the departure of a group that had been excommunicated but would not leave. This resulted in about a dozen lawsuits in both Canada and the United States between various Hutterite factions and colonies, and placed the issues of shunning, excommunication, legitimacy of leadership, and communal property rights before the secular courts. What is the story behind this extraordinary development in Hutterite history? How did the courts respond, and how did that outside (state) law relate to the traditional inside law of the Hutterites? Utilizing voluminous court records, Esau provides a detailed and fascinating narrative of the prolonged disputes and litigation history of Hutterite colonies at Lakeside, Oak Bluff, Rock Lake, and Huron. He considers whether the legal action was consistent with the historic non-resistance of Hutterites or whether it signaled a fundamental change in norms of Anabaptist perspectives on litigation. He examines the past history of Hutterite litigation, and how the roots of the schism related to controversy over the Schmiedeleut leadership and its alliance with the Bruderhof, a group of Christian communalists, living mainly in the Eastern United States. At stake is the nature of freedom of religion in Canada and the extent to which our pluralistic society is prepared to accommodate the existence of groups that have an illiberal legal system that may not cohere with the outside legal system of the host society. While this book will be of particular interest to scholars of law and religion, it will also appeal to anyone in Anabaptist studies, sociology, anthropology, political theory, and conflict resolution.
Documents the disturbing history of four pacifists imprisoned for their refusal to serve during World War I. To Hutterites and members of other pacifist sects, serving the military in any way goes against the biblical commandment “thou shalt not kill” and Jesus’s admonition to turn the other cheek when confronted with violence. Pacifists in Chains tells the story of four young men—Joseph Hofer, Michael Hofer, David Hofer, and Jacob Wipf—who followed these beliefs and refused to perform military service in World War I. The men paid a steep price for their resistance, imprisoned in Alcatraz and Fort Leavenworth, where the two youngest died. The Hutterites buried the men as martyrs, citing mistreatment. Using archival material, letters from the four men and others imprisoned during the war, and interviews with their descendants, Duane C. S. Stoltzfus explores the tension between a country preparing to enter into a world war and a people whose history of martyrdom for their pacifist beliefs goes back to their sixteenth-century Reformation beginnings.
When he found out that the Little Bow Hutterite Colony in southern Alberta was to be flooded upon completion of a nearby dam, award-winning documentary photographer George Webber visited the inhabitants. He hoped they would allow him to photograph them at work and at play, before their homes disappeared forever. Over the next four years Webber witnessed and photographed, gently and unobtrusively, the daily life in the colony and finally its abandonment. They welcomed him into their barns, gardens, kitchen, dining room, school, and - ultimately - their church. This mutual respect and affection is reflected in the remarkable photographs collected in A World Within. The necessities of documentary photography are a good match for Webber's photographic methods and sensibilities. He eschews the use of flash and prefers to work only with available light. Webber's spare, unstaged compositions reflect the simple lifestyle of the colony. The speed of film he uses gives his images strong blacks and crisp whites, the grainy greys adding warmth to each image. The result is A World Within - an exquisite collection of black-and-white photographs, taken with an understanding, sensitivity, and spiritual connection that makes them exceptional. A foreword on the history of Hutterites in Canada written by University of Alberta religion scholar David Goa, and a series of excerpts from Webber's journals, provide cultural context for the images.
Paul Tschetter Was a Leading Figure In Late Nineteenth-Century Hutterite history, the "Hutterite Joshua," who convinced 1,250 Hutterites to leave Russia in the 1870s and resettle in Dakota Territory. Tschetter's life elucidates the way that an immigrant community fought for survival in a North American environment that stressed assimilation to radically different political, economic, cultural, and religious values. Janzen provides an in-depth narrative and analysis of Tschetter's influence based on diaries, sermons, hymns, interviews, and other primary materials. "I welcome this long-overdue book on Paul Tschetter. Rod Janzen is to be commended for continuing to preserve the Prairieleut heritage. Paul Tschetter provided much needed leadership in a very transitional period of Hutterian history."---Tony Waldner, Forest River Hutterite Colony "Much has been written on the communal Hutterites, but Rod Janzen is one of the very few scholars who have tracked the history of the more numerous Prairieleut, or noncommunal Hutterites. Spotlighting the pivotal Prairieleut leader Paul Tschetter is a giant step forward in preserving the history of the `other' Hutterites."---Timothy Miller, University of Kansas "Janzen writes the way history ought to be written ... The author builds upon, and then goes far beyond all previous studies---in content, and especially in his solid interpretation and historical analysis where socioreligious perspectives are not shortchanged."---Leonard Gross, author of the Golden Years of the Hutterites "The Tschetter family is grateful for Dr. Janzen's thoughtful biography."---Wesley G. Tschetter, South Dakota State University "Paul Tschetter's biography---so well-written by the careful and detailed research of Rod Janzen---preserves as a lasting tribute the story of a wonderful and many-sided man and the remarkable community of the Prairieleut people in the context of a forever vanished society and era."---Max Stanton, Brigham Young University, Hawaii
"The Hutterites" is an ambitious undertaking for a young man who ran away from a Hutterite colony in 1983 and became successful as a writer and illustrator of classic books which document his Hutterite childhood (Born Hutterite and Dance Like a Poor Man). In his latest undertaking, years in the making, Hofer has taken on nothing less than a complete and straightforward account of the Hutterite experience, an explanation of its religious basis and the source of its communal life, the life cycles from birth to death and nearly 500 years of history of this most successful of the anabaptist Christian sects, right up to present-day schisms and struggles to survive into the 21st Century. What makes "The Hutterites: Lives and Images of a Communal People" unique among books dealing with Hutterites is the author's insightful and equitable perspective on his subject. Unlike other Hutterite who have left the "ark of communal life, Hofer has no bones to pick, no great cause to espouse. While the book is peppered with engaging anecdotes of his Hutterite upbringing, he describes the Hutterite experience with the objectivity and dispassion worthy of a professional historian or sociologist -- but in plain language stripped of jargon and pretense. His accessibility to the Hutterite communities and to others who have left the colonies has given him a wealth of stories and examples which help to make the Hutterite experience vivid and engaging. A reader comes to know not just about the Hutterites but also what it is like to be a Hutterite. The work is studded with 140 photographs, a valuable visual record in itself. While scholars will treasure this work for both its breadth and its detail, casualobservers of Hutterite life will find it both an easy and an illuminating read. Hofer has written for the common reader who is curious about the people whose dress and language have set them apart from the multitude of other cultures, not just for professors or for other disaffected Hutterites. He pierces the myth and misconceptions that have arisen about the communal people and builds a bridge of understanding that may be crossed by anyone conscious of our common humanity. In doing so, he has created that rare book that not only informs, but serves the cause of goodness.
