understanding but never quite inter- 
nalizing the Hutterite world view. 
This failure at the last step did not 
prove an insurmountable problem both 
because we were not permanent mem- 
bers of the community and because 
the Hutterites stress correct behavior 
over correct thinking. Their catechism 
asks, “What is inner shame?” The re- 
ply is, “When a man has sinful 
thoughts, which he should dispose of.” 
It asks, “What is sin?” The answer 
is, “The transgression of the law.” In 
a communal society, wrong thinking 
is bad, but if kept to oneself, is not 
disruptive; wrong behavior, no matter 
what the motive, is sin. And as par- 
ticipants, we were not to sin. We were 
helped to be good, for as the minister 
gently assured us, “You are fortunate 
to be living in the colony, for there 
are always one hundred eyes watching 
you.” 
The Hutterites, or Hutterian Breth- 
ren, live in discrete colonies on the 
plains of the United States and Can- 
ada. They migrated to the United 
States from Russia in 1874, having, 
it is claimed, been assured by Presi- 
dent Grant that their absolute paci- 
fism would not cause any trouble be- 
cause “America would never fight in 
another war.” Of the eight hundred 
Hutterites who came, about half took 
advantage of the Homestead Act and 
finally settled in dispersed family 
units; the other three to four hundred 
settled in three colonies in South Da- 
kota. Through biological increase and 
by an orderly process of establishing 
daughter colonies, the population has 
grown to about 24,000, and the origi- 
nal three colonies have become 230. 
Today, colonies are located in Alberta, 
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North and 
South Dakota, Montana, Washington, 
and Minnesota. Theologically, the 
Hutterites are Anabaptists, practicing 
adult baptism, total nonresistance, and 
apostolic communism. They trace 
their origin to a moment in the spring 
of 1528 when a cloak was spread be- 
fore a group of religious refugees flee- 
ing through Moravia, and each mem- 
ber of the group laid upon it his money 
and other, worldly possessions. Thus, 
occasioned by necessity and sanc- 
tioned by religion, the practice of “all 
things in common” (Acts 2:44) was 
adopted as the Hutterite way of life. 
They called themselves Brothers, but 
were named Hutterians or Hutterites 
by outsiders after an early leader, Ja- 
cob Hutter, who was burned at the 
stake in Innsbruck in 1536. A min- 
ister’s translation from the Geschichts- 
Buch, a history book kept by the Hut- 
terite leaders through the centuries, 
describes Hutter’s ordeal: 
After they had him captured, they tied 
a club in his mouth and transferred him 
to Innsbruck. They punished him and tor- 
tured him but he would not recant. . . . 
They proceeded to put him in ice cold 
water until he could not move. From there 
they put him in a warm room and lashed 
him unmercifully. They cut wounds into 
his body and poured alcohol into the 
wounds, lit it, and let it burn. But still 
he would not recant. After much suffering 
and torture, he was sentenced and burned 
at the stake alive. 
The persecution of the Hutterites 
did not subside until 1551. By 1592, 
there were approximately ninety colo- 
nies in Moravia with an estimated pop- 
ulation of twenty to thirty thousand. 
But by 1767 renewed persecution, war, 
and the Counter-Reformation had re- 
duced their number to nineteen. This 
handful, joined by fifty-six Lutherans 
from Austria, fled to Russia, where 
they settled in 1770. When denied 
exemption from military service and 
the right to maintain their own schools 
in 1874, they emigrated to the United 
States. There conditions were favor- 
able until the outbreak of World War 
I, when the Hutterites were harassed 
by their neighbors and Hutterite draft- 
ees were subjected to barbaric treat- 
ment. After months in solitary con- 
finement, two North Dakota Hutter- 
ites who had refused to wear army 
uniforms died of physical mistreat- 
ment, malnutrition, and pneumonia. 
When the wife of one of the men 
asked to see his body, she was shown 
it — dressed in the military uniform he 
had so steadfastly refused to don. As 
a result of this episode, most Hut- 
terites moved to Canada, where the 
majority still live. The men who died 
in prison during the First World War 
are remembered as martyrs to their 
faith. 
Hutterites do not stress historical 
dates or even historical sequences, but 
stories of the martyrs and times of 
tribulation are copied by children in 
German school and are retold at in- 
formal gatherings where the children 
learn, and the adults remember, that 
it is better to “die the bitterest death, 
yea ten deaths, than to forsake the 
truth.” Retelling their history rein- 
forces their belief in the sinful and 
corrupt ways of “the world,” their be- 
lief that this life is difficult and ar- 
bitrary and the true Christian must 
expect to suffer for his faith. The Hut- 
terites have never believed their life 
to be utopian, viewing it instead as 
an exacting religious regimen that de- 
mands denial of self and of private 
property and absolute obedience to 
God and the community. A Hutterite 
work describes “a way of life that 
not even we who live it, always like, 
according to the flesh; but we know 
it is . . . the way the God of love wants 
his children to live on this earth. . . .” 
The goal of child rearing among 
the Hutterites is the young adult’s vol- 
untary decision to submit himself to 
the church community. The Hutterites 
have been remarkably successful in 
achieving this goal by guiding their 
children through a series of socially 
defined age grades, each character- 
ized by specific behavior and teaching. 
During the first three years of life, 
the Hutterite child is known as a baby, 
or a house child, because it is fed 
at home and is primarily under the 
care of its parents. This is a privileged 
period in the individual’s life and a 
time of intense socialization. Although 
little attention is paid to pregnancy, 
other than to maintain that the harder 
a woman works, the healthier her baby 
will be, and the role of the mother 
in the birth is de-emphasized (babies 
are viewed as a gift from God), the 
neonatal period is a very special time 
for both mother and child. The new 
mother is relieved of all colony re- 
sponsibilities and given the full-time 
help of a mature woman. Typically, 
the woman’s own mother comes from 
her home colony to care for and 
mother her daughter, who, in turn, 
cares for and mothers her new baby. 
The caretaker-nurse feeds and cares 
for the mother and her house children, 
does all her family work, and even 
sleeps with her at night, helping her 
twenty-four hours a day. Colony mem- 
bers and relatives from neighboring 
colonies come to visit the mother and 
to see the new baby. 
Hutterites consider the neonatal 
child demanding and vulnerable but 
at the same time a great joy and a 
During the first three years 
of life, the Hutterite child is 
known as a baby, or house 
child. House children are 
fed at home and are primarily 
cared for by their parents. 
36 
