Comparison of Contemporary and Extinct Utopian Groups
Comparison of Contemporary Utopian Groups
| Characteristic | Old Order Amish | Old Order Mennonites | Hutterites |
| settlement patterns | dispersed farms | dispersed farms | village |
| houses | individual | individual | row houses |
| barns | individual | individual | clustered |
| property ownership | individual | individual | collective |
| places of worship | individual farm houses | meeting halls | meeting halls |
| Anabaptists | yes | yes | yes |
| Pacifists | yes | yes | yes |
| marriages | nuclear family | nuclear family | nuclear family |
| gender roles | male dominate | male dominate | male dominate |
| sexual activities | between husband & wife | between husband & wife | between husband & wife |
| equipment & tools | no electricity, rubber tires | no electricity, rubber tires | latest technology |
| head covering | hats & bonnets | hats & bonnets | hats & bonnets |
| clothing | plain & dark colors | plain colors | plain & dark colors |
| formal education | > 8th grade in their rural schools | attend public schools | > 8th grade in their village schools |
| duration of group | 1872 (USA)-present | 1872 (USA)-present | 1525 (Europe)-present |
| maximum members | 250,000; 876 church districts | 20,000; 150 congregations | 200 colonies; 20,000 members |
| ethnicity | Germanic | Germanic | Germanic from Russia |
Comparison of Extinct Utopian Groups
| Characteristic | Shakers | Zoarist | Oneida |
| settlement patterns | village | village | village |
| houses | dwelling houses | duplexes | one big house |
| barns | clustered | clustered | scattered |
| property ownership | collective | collective | collective |
| places of worship | meeting houses | meeting house | none; occasional religious lectures |
| Anabaptists | no | no | no |
| Pacifists | yes | yes | ? |
| marriages | none | nuclear family | one communal marriage |
| gender roles | equal but separate | ? | equal |
| sexual activities | none, celibacy | celibacy | theoretically every man with every women |
| equipment & tools | latest technology | latest technology | latest technology |
| head covering | hats & bonnets | ? | nothing distinctive |
| clothing | plain | ? | nothing distinctive for men, but women wore pants, short skirts, less underwear, and short hair |
| formal education | none; own school in villages | own school in village | no restrictions; several attended Yale University |
| duration of group | 1790-1960 (only several Shakers left now) | 1817-1898 | 1841-1881 |
| maximum members | 19 villages: 1840s, 6,000 | 1832, 500 | 350 |
| ethnicity | none | German (Bavarian) | none |
Created by Ingolf Vogeler and last revised on 13 October 2005.