Communal Societies Research Articles

Antecedent of Father Involvement: A Literature Review

Father involvement is an important aspect of the parenting process. Several studies have proven the positive influence of father involvement on children’s development. Unfortunately, both research on and implementation of parenting is still dominated by mothers, creating a need for studies on father involvement in child rearing. This literature review was compiled using three databases: Scopus, Sage and Science Direct. The main objective of this literature review is 1) to examine predictor variables of father involvement and 2) to assess the population of studies on father involvement. Forty-nine articles were analyzed in this review. The findings of this study show that research on paternal involvement in parenting is dominated by studies examining populations from a Western cultural context. In addition, most research on father involvement is rooted in the concept proposed by Lamb et al. (1985) in which paternal involvement is viewed through three dimensions: direct interaction, accessibility, and ultimate responsibility. Father-related, or individual, factors dominate the discourse of previous research as predictor variables of paternal involvement in parenting. A broader approach is required to determine predictor variables related to father involvement, due to the fact that there are many differences in the concept of family identity in non-Western cultures, especially in more communal societies. Research limitations are further explained in the article.

COMMUNITY TOLERANCE: RELATIONSHIP OF MUSLIM MAJORITY AND CHRISTIAN MINORITY IN THE CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS MODERATION IN PADANG PARIAMAN, WEST SUMATERA

Intolerance was often pinned on communal societies such as Indonesia because it uses a liberal-secular tolerance perspective which is identical to Western Christian society. If the perspective is shifted, for example using communal tolerance, the communal community will also practice the opposite, tolerance. This paper is intended to reveal and analyze how the Muslim community in the Nagari KH which is considered the majority practices tolerance on a community scale in the context of religious moderation towards the Christian minority in the Nagari. In addition, it also analyzes why the model's tolerance can occur. This research is qualitative research that relies on interview data from elements of the nagari government, penghulu, youth leaders, religious leaders and adherents of Islam and Christianity from both communities. The data is reinforced by document data including journals and research reports that are relevant to the research topic. The results show that community tolerance as a form of religious moderation has been practiced by the Muslim community of KH in the socio-economic and religious realms. In the socio-economic aspect, community tolerance appears in the form of openness to business, buying and selling and ownership of land and houses. While in the religious realm it is limited to individual and family worship at homes. The ambivalence of tolerance practiced by the Muslim community of KH is rooted in the ambivalence of Minangkabau culture on a macro level and the ambivalence of the geographical position of Nagari KH on a micro basis. Minangkabau cultural ambivalence collides and synthesizes matrilineal customs and matrilineal Islam. Meanwhile, the ambivalence of being a coastal area is at the same time bordering on darek. Both have given birth to an inclusive attitude towards immigrants in the socio-economic realm and exclusive when it comes to communal worship.

COMMUNITY TOLERANCE: RELATIONSHIP OF MUSLIM MAJORITY AND CHRISTIAN MINORITY IN THE CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS MODERATION IN PADANG PARIAMAN, WEST SUMATERA

Intolerance was often pinned on communal societies such as Indonesia because it uses a liberal-secular tolerance perspective which is identical to Western Christian society. If the perspective is shifted, for example using communal tolerance, the communal community will also practice the opposite, tolerance. This paper is intended to reveal and analyze how the Muslim community in the Nagari KH which is considered the majority practices tolerance on a community scale in the context of religious moderation towards the Christian minority in the Nagari. In addition, it also analyzes why the model's tolerance can occur. This research is qualitative research that relies on interview data from elements of the nagari government, penghulu, youth leaders, religious leaders and adherents of Islam and Christianity from both communities. The data is reinforced by document data including journals and research reports that are relevant to the research topic. The results show that community tolerance as a form of religious moderation has been practiced by the Muslim community of KH in the socio-economic and religious realms. In the socio-economic aspect, community tolerance appears in the form of openness to business, buying and selling and ownership of land and houses. While in the religious realm it is limited to individual and family worship at homes. The ambivalence of tolerance practiced by the Muslim community of KH is rooted in the ambivalence of Minangkabau culture on a macro level and the ambivalence of the geographical position of Nagari KH on a micro basis. Minangkabau cultural ambivalence collides and synthesizes matrilineal customs and matrilineal Islam. Meanwhile, the ambivalence of being a coastal area is at the same time bordering on darek. Both have given birth to an inclusive attitude towards immigrants in the socio-economic realm and exclusive when it comes to communal worship.

Rituals, Collapse, and Radical Transformation in Archaic States Edited by Joanne M.A. Murphy. London: Routledge 2021. Pp. 242. $160. ISBN 9780367230265 (cloth).

<i>Rituals, Collapse, and Radical Transformation in Archaic States</i> Edited by Joanne M.A. Murphy. London: Routledge 2021. Pp. 242. $160. ISBN 9780367230265 (cloth).

PENGATURAN HAK KEKAYAAN INTELEKTUAL DALAM MASYARAKAT KOMUNAL DI INDONESIA

The Communal Intellectual Property of Indonesia is susceptible to recognition, theft, and piracy of other countries because Indonesia is still not a sovereign guarding culture. Regulations of Unesco, sui generis system from Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and regulation of Malaysia year 2005 AKTA 645 about national heritage it is tangible proof that cultures must have a specific binding arrangement to protect for it. This research purpose to know the setting of intellectual property rights in comunal societies Indonesia by normative legal research methods. The findings that there is weaknesses in protecting communal societies set on a few rules that is copyrigts law, patent law, and merk law so that gives rise to ambience. The legal protection of communal rights against intellectual property requires a special law containing definitions and ling space and the existance of a special agency that regulates its application mechanisms.

Gender and Coloniality: From Low-Intensity Communal Patriarchy to High-Intensity Colonial-Modern Patriarchy

AbstractThis essay collects four decades of my own reflections, as an anthropologist and feminist, on gender and coloniality across various contexts in Latin America. It also highlights the decolonial methodology and vocabulary that I have had to develop in my various roles as scholar, public intellectual, and expert witness over the years. Briefly, what I present here is a decolonial feminist perspective that argues for the existence of a patriarchal political order in communal societies before colonization. Yet, in my view, precolonial gender has a dual structure that is plural in essence and differs markedly from the binary gender structure of colonial-modern societies, which works in terms of a One and its marginalized others. As I argue, the capturing and transformation of precolonial dual gender structures by the modern gender system exacerbates inequality, increases violence against women, and disempowers them politically. For that reason, I speak of “low-intensity” and “high-intensity” patriarchal systems.

Harmony in Business: Christian Communal Capitalism in the Early Republic

Scholars increasingly acknowledge the contingent, varied, complex nature of capitalism, yet overlook a viable vision of the early nineteenth-century United States: communal capitalism. Communal societies proliferated in the early United States as a way to regulate the market. The most industrious, materially successful model of this approach was George Rapp’s Harmony Society, established in 1805. Rapp was a radical Pietist, immigrating with his followers from Württemberg in order to establish a purified community that would persevere into the millennium he predicted was imminent. Despite a ban on private property, the Harmonists embraced the market, building textile factories and conducting market activity under the moniker “Rapp &amp; Associates.” Technologically innovative, shrewd in business, and dogged in pursuit of a “divine economy,” the example of the Harmony Society helps us better understand how religious businesses helped shape the early American capitalist system and, specifically, the contributions of German Pietism to economic thought in the Atlantic world. Ultimately, we discover how the Harmonists’ communal capitalism forsook wages and private property, while embracing stocks, bonds, leases, mortgages, patents, trademarks, licenses, litigation, and contracts as they built an incredibly successful and wealthy manufacturing community in the then-western United States, even as George Rapp’s authoritarian leadership style created tensions within his workforce of immigrant women, men, and children.

Incumbency Disadvantages and Populism in Indonesian Local Elections: Case Studies of Banda Aceh and Takalar

This article seeks to contribute an understanding of how populism informs incumbency disadvantages in elections. Incumbency has been seen as highly beneficial in elections, and many studies have found that incumbent candidates enjoy significant access to resources with which they can campaign. This article, however, finds a different reality, with incumbents in Banda Aceh and Takalar experiencing electoral defeat. In both areas, extensive field studies before and after the local elections found that incumbents’ unwillingness to adopt a populist approach during their terms influenced voters’ choices. The main argument of this article is that, in Indonesia’s local democracies, incumbency has created space for varied models of populism, including the communitarian populism found in Aceh and Takalar. Such populism has emerged from specific socio-cultural contexts at the local level that have shaped voters’ preferences. The socio-cultural context of communal societies such as Aceh and Takalar has informed the truth value through which elites, policies, and phenomena are judged. Ultimately, this communitarian populism cannot be separated from the public’s desires for elections. These two cases offer a profile of how communitarian societies respond to and shape local populism in Indonesia.

Molière’s Tartuffe: A Foucauldian Reading

The present study discusses Foucault’s concern with the nature of power in human society. As the concept of power is a major challenge in communal societies, he believes that there is no longer a single dominant power. The play portrays this challenge for obtaining power and the resistance it faces that can be best analyzed in a philosophical term. The paper shows how various orders of power are at work in a house which is very similar to a battlefield. As a classical play, one may think that the father is the head of family and has the final say but it is obvious that different members of the family, even their servant resist this kind of power. So, the paper analyses the status of power structure in a classical play.

The Principles of Investment Law in the Management of Mineral and Coal Resources Within Communal Land

The legal forms of land tenure by communal society, known as communal, are varies in Indonesia. Communal title has been considered as a juridical and common term, although each of communal societies actually has their own different technical term. Making communal land as an investment place of managing mineral and coal resources might bring some legal issues for communal society. The first issue related to less optimal implementation of the principles of investment law by both government and investors. It would impact on the emerging conflicts between communal society and investors. Second, the position of communal land loaded by given-period mining permit would turn into the state property after the period ended.

The Principles of Investment Law in the Management of Mineral and Coal Resources Within Communal Land

The legal forms of land tenure by communal society, known as communal, are varies in Indonesia. Communal title has been considered as a juridical and common term, although each of communal societies actually has their own different technical term. Making communal land as an investment place of managing mineral and coal resources might bring some legal issues for communal society. The first issue related to less optimal implementation of the principles of investment law by both government and investors. It would impact on the emerging conflicts between communal society and investors. Second, the position of communal land loaded by given-period mining permit would turn into the state property after the period ended.

Inter-Ethnic Marriages, 'Indigeneship,' Women's Rights and National Integration in Nigeria Since 1979

This paper investigates gender inequalities relating to indigene-ship in Nigeria. The growing population of mixed ethnic marriages in Nigeria has created challenges relating to indigene-ship especially with regards to women who have married into ethnic groups other than theirs. The growing population of women who are not living in their states of origin due to inter-ethnic marriages encounter discrimination that is both gender and ethnic bound. These forms of discriminations are mostly enshrined in customary laws which need to change in order to initiate a bottom up approach to dismantling the system. The study uses the federal character principle as a frame of reference for analysing the extent of discrimination against women beginning from the federal level to the local council levels. It argues that the principle should be interpreted as an instrument of affirmative action for women and a provision should be made for redefining the indigene-ship of women in inter-ethnic marriages. From federal statutory discrimination, the paper narrows its discourse to how this form of discrimination impacts on rural women especially those in inter-ethnic marriages. Land is central to indigene-ship, however most communal societies in Nigeria uphold customary laws that do not encourage land ownership by women in inter-ethnic marriages and women in general. This will invariably affect both ethnic and economic integration of women who are the bulwark of food security. While utilising the historical methodology, the study also incorporates surveys conducted by other researchers. A critical review of the federal character principle and gender biased customary laws is suggested. This recommendation is largely based on findings that point to the fact that although a good amount of advocacy regarding the gender component of the federal constitution has been on for some time, no concrete actions have been advanced by government to solve the problem.

The Book of Mormon’s Witness to Its First Readers

Book Review| April 01 2015 The Book of Mormon’s Witness to Its First Readers Dale E. Luffman. The Book of Mormon’s Witness to Its First Readers. Independence: Community of Christ Seminary Press, 2013. Christopher James Blythe Christopher James Blythe Christopher James Blythe is a historian working on the Joseph Smith Papers. He completed a PhD at Florida State University in American religious history in 2015. Blythe also holds degrees from Utah State University and Texas A&M University. His published research has appeared in several academic journals including Nova Religio, Communal Societies, and Journal of Mormon History. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Book of Mormon Studies (2015) 24: 203–206. https://doi.org/10.5406/jbookmormstud2.24.2015.0203 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Christopher James Blythe; The Book of Mormon’s Witness to Its First Readers. Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 1 April 2015; 24 203–206. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/jbookmormstud2.24.2015.0203 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of Book of Mormon Studies Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2015 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2015 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Ékpè ‘leopard’ society in Africa and the Americas: influence and values of an ancient tradition

The Ékpè (‘leopard’) society represents an ancient African institution that had provided the supreme functions of governance in the communal societies of the forest regions of the Cross-River basin and the hilly terrain to the east. With the colonial intervention in the late nineteenth century, the emergence of modern individualism and western political systems has tended to ignore the important roles which Ékpè played in the past, leading in some cases to its condemnation as a primitive institution that should be forgotten in light of monotheism. This essay discusses the origins of Ékpè, its symbolism, its values, its gender dynamics, its dispersal within Africa and the Americas, with the intent to demonstrate its relevance to contemporary community relations in all regions where Ékpè tradition has been sustained, such as Cameroon, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and, most recently, the USA.

Holy Jumpers: Evangelicals and Radicals in Progressive Era America (review)

Reviewed by: Holy Jumpers: Evangelicals and Radicals in Progressive Era America Darrin J. Rodgers Holy Jumpers: Evangelicals and Radicals in Progressive Era America. By William Kostlevy. [Religion in America Series.] (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xiv, 240. $65.00. ISBN 978-0-195-37784-2.) Holy Jumpers offers a well-crafted account of the small but influential Metropolitan Church Association (MCA), a communitarian Wesleyan Holiness group that made a colorful splash onto the American religious scene at the turn of the twentieth century. With roots in the Methodist church and parallels to the rise of other radical social and political movements, the MCA challenges modern assumptions about theological and social uniformity among evangelicals. The MCA was founded in the 1890s in Chicago, emerging from urban working-class culture. Founded by two successful businessmen, the group rejected private property and was one of at least a dozen Holiness communal societies at the time. The group relocated in 1906 to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and started a number of missions in the United States and abroad, most notably a thriving project in India. By 1901, the group had adopted two controversial [End Page 859] practices that distinguished it from other Holiness groups: holy jumping (the MCA's jumping worshipers were widely caricatured in religious and secular newspapers); and the expectation that truly sanctified Christians would sell their personal possessions and live communally. The MCA was popularly known by the title of its caustic periodical, the Burning Bush, which imitated the muckraking journalism of the day and ridiculed more moderate Holiness leaders. "Burning Bushers," also known as "holy jumpers," served, variously, as an inspiration, irritant, or a source of humor to a generation of radical evangelicals. Holy Jumpers enriches the understanding of the development of other Holiness groups such as the Salvation Army, the Free Methodist Church, and the Church of the Nazarene, which share overlapping histories with the MCA. The MCA influenced key Holiness leaders, including Seth C. Rees, Alma White, and Bud Robinson. Importantly, the MCA was a catalyst in the emergence of Pentecostalism. MCA leaders excoriated the "tongues movement," rejecting it as based on ethical and doctrinal irregularities. Although the MCA objected to the Pentecostal identification of glossolalia as evidence of Spirit-baptism, the MCA had its own evidence—jumping. Kostlevy points out that the MCA contributed many members and leaders to the Azusa Street Revival (1906-09) in Los Angeles, California, which was a focal point of the young Pentecostal movement. MCA leader A. G. Garr folded his Los Angeles congregation into the Azusa Street mission and, in 1906, became the first missionary commissioned at Azusa Street. Oneness Pentecostal pioneer Glenn Cook also came from the MCA. Curiously, Kostlevy did not mention that Church of God in Christ cofounder and publisher D. J. Young also had roots in the MCA. Kostlevy, a noted bibliographer of the Holiness movement, based his research on the MCA's extensive archives (now housed at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California), which were previously inaccessible. This important study of the MCA, which Kostlevy calls the "anarchists of the Holiness Movement" (p. 10), is a lively account of how one group at the margins left its mark on the broader Christian tradition. Holy Jumpers sheds light on currents and fissures in evangelicalism usually neglected in the standard church histories and will be warmly welcomed by those interested in the history of American religion, the Holiness movement, and Pentecostalism. [End Page 860] Darrin J. Rodgers Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Springfield, MO Copyright © 2011 The Catholic University of America Press

The Hutterites in North America (review)

Rod Janzen and Max Stanton, Hutterites in North America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. 373 pp. We don't need another book about Hutterites, a 30-year-old Hutterite man bluntly told authors when they visited his colony in course of doing research for this book (275). Fortunately, Janzen and Stanton were not persuaded. A great deal has changed in Hutterite life since appearance of what have been standard ethnographic accounts of these distinctive peoples of northern plains: John Bennett's Hutterian Brethren: Agricultural Economy and Social Organization of a Communal People (1967), John A. Hostetler's Hutterite Society (1974), and John A. Hostetler and Gertrude Huntington's Hutterites in North America (1967) (published in George and Louise Spindlers' series, Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology, and unfortunately same title as present volume). Hostetler's book was reissued in 1997 with a new preface, but content changed rather little. Hostetler and Huntington's book was revised in 1980 and again in 1996, but revisions were spotty. In fact, we do need a new book on Hutterites. authors of present study are an historian (Janzen) and an anthropologist (Stanton), both of whom have had extensive personal experience and interactions with Hutterites in US and Canada over last 25 years. book combines historical and ethnographic information. Two of 13 chapters deal entirely with Hutterite history prior to recent past, and other chapters include discussion of events prior to authors' field research. In more ethnographic portions of book, authors say they sought, citing Clifford Geertz, an actor-oriented interpretation of beliefs and conduct, which is to say people's own understanding (xvi). There is a slightly different feel to historical and ethnographic portions of book, but this did not strike me as problematic. authors describe book as a collaborative effort, but indicate that Janzen is the primary writer and researcher (xv). Hutterites date their origins to 1520s in Tirolean region of Austria. Part of Anabaptist movement, which also produced Amish, Mennonites, and Church of Brethren, Hutterites alone embraced community of goods (in 1528) in imitation of apostolic community described in Acts 3:32: The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they owned was held in common. Although twice in their history Hutterites faced circumstances which compelled them to abandon common property (once for over a century and once for about 60 years), it always remained their ideal, and they can justifiably claim to have lived communally longer than any other modern European population. A combination of persecution and inducements caused Hutterites to relocate several times during their history-in turn to Moravia, Slovakia, Transylvania, Ukraine, and, finally, to United States. Between 1874 and 1880, over 1,200 Hutterites immigrated to Dakota Territory, where twothirds of them chose to continue living pattern that had predominated in Ukraine and settled on private farms, becoming known as Prairieleut. remainder, about 425, set up three common property colonies, one by each of affiliation groups that had readopted communal living in Ukraine shortly prior to emigrating: Schmiedeleut, Dariusleut, and Lehrerleut. By 1940s, all Prairieleut had given up their Hutterite identity and joined Mennonite churches, but three communal leuts have survived to present. Like their Amish cousins, and in contrast to some 19th century religious communal societies that discouraged or even prohibited procre ation (e.g., Shakers, Rappites, Oneida, and Amana), Hutterites have always been pro-natalist. A widely cited figure from 1950s of an average of 10. …

The mob response

One for all and all for one; strength is in numbers—humans have successfully used the strategy of working together whether as nations, tribes, groups or families. Yet, many other species use the same strategy to equally good effect, whether they are fish or birds that school or flock together to evade and confuse predators, or hive insects, such as bees, that developed communal societies long before humans did. Yet, communalism is not limited to higher animals: even the most basic organisms—bacteria and other microorganisms—have successfully adopted this strategy to colonize and survive many different environments. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, scientists have known that bacteria and other single‐celled organisms are able to form colonies, but the level of sophistication and the importance of these for the whole biosphere has only become apparent during the past 40 years. This new understanding has led to one of the most actively researched areas of modern molecular biology: biofilms and the extraordinary signalling network, called quorum sensing, which underpins them. > On the beneficial side, biofilms have an essential role in breaking down sewage and decontaminating polluted sites, and are vital for the health of ecosystems… This research is highly relevant for human health because biofilms are implicated in numerous debilitating—and often chronic—diseases, including cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, orthodontal disease, sinusitis and some forms of heart disease. Biofilms also cause many problems elsewhere, such as contaminating food and its packaging, and fouling water supplies. On the beneficial side, biofilms have an essential role in breaking down sewage and decontaminating polluted sites, and are vital for the health of ecosystems. These bacterial communities break down organic debris from dead fish and plants in rivers and streams, and absorb heavy ions from water, while biofilms on the surface can break down debris without consuming additional oxygen. …

Does It Pay To Pray? Costly Ritual and Cooperation

Abstract Time-consuming and costly religious rituals pose a puzzle for economists committed to rational choice theories of human behavior. We propose that either through selection or a causal relationship, the performance of religious rituals is associated with higher levels of cooperation. To test this hypothesis we design field experiments to measure the in-group cooperative behavior of members of religious and secular Israeli kibbutzim, communal societies for which mutual cooperation is a matter of survival. Our results show that religious males (the primary practitioners of collective religious ritual in Orthodox Judaism) are more cooperative than religious females, secular males and secular females. Moreover, the frequency with which religious males engage in collective religious rituals predicts well their degree of cooperative behavior.

"Second try of Opening Preface" by John Steinbeck

The friendship between Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck may well have reached its peak in 1940, the year the two traveled together to the Sea of Cortez. In 1939, each had published what was arguably his greatest accomplishment—Between Pacific Tides and The Grapes of Wrath. Yet both emerged from their respective projects in very different states of mind: The publication of Between Pacific Tides after years of struggle with Stanford University Press energized Ricketts, while Steinbeck was exhausted after composing The Grapes of Wrath in one hundred working days. Facing a whirlwind of critical acclaim tempered by violent opposition to Grapes, Steinbeck sought a new direction for his energies—one that would temporarily take him away from fiction. In a much-quoted letter to friend Carlton "Dook" Sheffield, he captures this pivotal moment: [...] I must make a new start. I've worked the novel—I know it as far as I can take it. I never did think much of it—a clumsy vehicle at best. And I don't know the form of the new but I know there is a new which will be adequate and shaped by the new thinking. (Steinbeck and Wallsten 194) Steinbeck's "new form" was marine biology, and in late 1939 he embarked on a project—and, ultimately, a voyage—that would mark the culmination of the philosophies and ideas that he and Ricketts exchanged over the course of their eighteen-year relationship. [End Page 23] Immediately after publication of Between Pacific Tides, Stanford University Press suggested that Ricketts start work on a handbook of the most common intertidal species in the San Francisco Bay area. Steinbeck eagerly signed on a few months later, seeing the project as one that would help make him conversant in marine biology. As he wrote to his agent, Elizabeth Otis: "I have a terrific job of reading to do. Ricketts is all right but I am a popular writer and I have to build some trust in the minds of biologists. This handbook will help do that" (Steinbeck and Wallsten196). They planned to write the book collaboratively, each composing essays on general principles of ecology and animal descriptions; Steinbeck was to then collate them into a handbook for high school students and general enthusiasts. Joel W. Hedgpeth, first editor of Ricketts's essays, notes, "Ed always thought that Steinbeck would have been a fine biologist, and admired his very sharp eye on the seashore, his ability to see things that even Ed missed" (1:31). By early 1940 they had completed partial drafts that outline the book's format: It would mirror the ecological arrangement of Between Pacific Tides but delve even deeper, drawing further parallels between intertidal life and human society. In the draft of his "Zoological Preface" to the San Francisco book Ricketts writes: Who would see a replica of man's social structure has only to examine the abundant and various life of the tidepools, where miniature communal societies wage dubious battle against equally potent societies in which the individual is paramount, with trends shifting, maturing, or dying out, with all the living organisms balanced against the limitations of the dead kingdom of rocks and currents and temperatures and dissolved gases. A study of animal communities has this advantage: they are merely what they are, for anyone to see who will and can look clearly; they cannot complicate the picture by worded idealisms, by saying one thing and being another; here the struggle is unmasked and the beauty is unmasked. Even the two chief philosophies of human society are paralleled on the shore: those dedicated to the [End Page 24] principle that the individual serves the state, chiefly as a unit or cog in that supra-personal social organization that is the colony; and those based on the democratic principle that the state serves the all-important individual. The latter are exemplified by the octopus and by other actively predacious animals which, by their individual...

Law and disorder at home: free love, free speech, and the search for an anarchist utopia

Anarchy: the very term connotes manifold images, including mayhem, chaos, and disorder. Yet for American anarchists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, anarchism suggested not nih...