Jennifer Longoria

29 March 2012

A Shaker’s Utopia

A Utopian society is defined as an experimental community intended to reform or escape from normal human society, often by substituting planning, cooperation, or collective values and practices in place of laissez-faire, competition, and individualism. I was led to the subject of Shakers during a back and forth email chain with my professor and was told that this society was not only Utopian but had enough interesting qualities that I would find some material for my research post from studying them alone. I recognized the name Shaker but I did not previously know of, or safer to say remember, any information about this community. After starting with Wikipedia and then working my way to more accredited sights I came to find out not only characteristics that defined this community as Utopian but also how close to perfection these people were. 

In 1747 The United Society of Believers were formed in Manchester, England. This religious group, commonly known as the Shakers due to their tendency to twitch, dance or convulse during worship, followed the teaching of their Eldress Ann Lee, or more affectionately known as Mother Ann.  After the premature death of her four children, Ann claimed to receive a vision from God in which she was told that the root of all sin was sexual intercourse.  As such, Ann claimed that celibacy was the only true way to worship and be close to God. This claim is one of the main staples that define the Shaker community.  There is no marriage in the community and those who are married and decide to join the community thereby have their marriage broken in order to follow these teachings.  Another staple of the community is the belief in the dualism of God who is seen as both male and female by the Shakers. This belief puts all men and women in the community on equal footing; neither gender is seen as more powerful or more dominant than the other.  The Shakers are then lead by two male men called Elders and two women called Eldresses. 

            The Shakers are known to be one of the most successful Utopian societies to date. It is believed that through their practices and beliefs the idea of spiritual perfection is achieved.  Since the Shakers are one of the most successful Utopian societies I decided to dig deeper into their practices to see what characteristics defined this community and what characteristics made them Utopian.  As stated before, there are a few staples of this particular Utopian Society. First, the society itself is sectioned off from the rest of the world, as this seems to be a common practice for most utopian societies. The worshipper must remain celibate and confess their sins on a daily basis. Since there is no marriage in the Shaker community there is also no procreation amongst its members. Instead, members are essentially added to the society if their own free will. Since Shakers are accepting of all people despite gender, age, race, or social standing the community is expected to thrive and grow based on their teaching and practices alone. Orphans and converts make up many of the increasing numbers the Shakers have and these members are expected to work as diligently as they worship.

            The Shaker community is divided by males and females on order to promote celibacy. Though both genders do interact in harmony at times, during social gathering or some menial housework, the household and the workload for the Shakers is essentially segregated.  Each household is made up of different members who make up a “family” that is led by two lower ranking elders and two lower ranking eldresses, each seeing over their respective genders.  The household is sectioned off so that each gender has their own rooms, doors, stairs, and entrances. The workload is also segregated as the men tend to do the outside work of farming, building, repairing, etc. while the women work indoors sewing, cooking, cleaning, etc. Though these seem to be your stereotypical; jobs for each gender, neither workload is seen as having a greater value than the other. Both genders have equal grounds both in regards to everyday household chores to leading the church as a whole.  I do believe this is one of the main reasons why this community thrived as much as it did.

            Though this particular utopian society is nearly depleted to almost nothing I did not find in research anywhere that this society had fallen out of grace by some catastrophe or as I would term it “insane practices” like the Oneida community. The Shakers are still influential in their teachings and music even today. Though their numbers have dwindled there was nothing in my findings that suggested that this society was not a successful Utopia. Through Mother Ann’s teachings and the continued belief that members in the society were specifically there of their own free will to be as close to God as possible, I can easily see how this society came to be as close to perfection as possible. Orphans, the weak, the homeless, and the outcast all benefitted from this society through their unwavering acceptance of all people and the need to pass along the Word and faith of God. If that is not the truest form of Utopia, I don’t know what is.

 Work Cited

Hogan, Kathleen. The Shakers. University of Virginia’s American Studies. Web. 28 March 2012.

"Shakers." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Web. 25 March. 2012

Sharyn & Olof. The Shaker Village at Sabbath Lake. The United Society of Shakers. Web. 25 March 2012.