Summary
Contents
Subject index
This book focuses specifically on the role of the family in communal life. Communal groups are one type of nontraditional families, some communes are predisposed to families while others are not and some communal families can be replacements or substitutes for nuclear families. Historic communal groups such as Shakers, Oneida, Amana, and the Mormons are investigated as are contemporary rural and urban communal groups such as Twin Oaks, Jesus People USA, and the Hutterites.
Communes: Conceptual, Definitional, Theoretical, and Typological Issues
Communes: Conceptual, Definitional, Theoretical, and Typological Issues
This chapter will continue to introduce the reader to the scholarly literature on communal groups. The purpose of this chapter is not to provide an exhaustive review of the literature on communal living, for that would be beyond the scope of this book, and a massive undertaking in its own right. What is relevant for this study is to discuss some of the key conceptual, definitional, theoretical, and typological issues related to the study of communes and our topic of communal families. In order to understand communal families, one needs to know some elementary background information on communes. Much of this chapter will be based on some recent work I have done ...
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