LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Historical Presentation 2007
Monday, 25 June:
Ruth Pilarte
60s Utopian Movements
Commune- A kind of intentional community where most resources are shared and there is little or no personal property (as opposed to a community that only shares housing).
v Historical Background-
§ Hippie Communes- In the late 1960s, a significant number of young Americans became disillusioned with the Vietnam War and the establishment’s crass commercialism. They called themselves hippies and flower children, and they were frustrated with conventional answers. In answer to the society then in place, they developed and initiated a surge of unrestrained experimentation with lifestyle and living arrangements. Many of them sought simpler lives, which they found by establishing communities (communes) such as, “The Hog Farm,” and “The Farm.”
v Hog Farm History
§ The Hog Farm is an organization considered to be America’s longest running hippie commune. It is referred to as “Hippie Hyannisport.”
§ Started out as a communal pig farm in California, its members eventually bought land next to a Hopi Indian reservation in New Mexico.
§ Its leader was a skinny, toothless hippie whose real name was Hugh Romney. He was a one-time beatnik comic who had changed his name to Wavy Gravy.
§ The group evolved into a “mobile, hallucination-extended family,” active nationwide in both music and politics.
§ The Hog farm is perhaps best known for their involvement with the Woodstock Music Festival. Woodstock ventures billed the concert as a “weekend in the country” temporary commune.
v The Hog Farm Today
§ Is still in existence, with various locations including a headquarters in Berkeley, California, and a 200+ acre farm in Laytonville, known as Black Oak Ranch- also home to the performing arts camp for children, camp Winnarainbow.
§ Camp Winnarainbow provides scholarships for homeless children in Bay Area and Native American kids from a reservation in South Dakota.
v The Farm
§ Founder was Stephen Gaskin, former English professor at San Francisco State University.
§ In 1971, 300 San Fran hippies loaded up their kids in brightly colored, old school buses and left to criss-cross the country in search of the perfect place to create a utopian community. The tour ended up a four month caravan b/c so many followers went with Steven and people joined along the way.
§ Calling themselves the Technicolor Amish, they landed in Summertown , TN. They called it, “The Farm,” one of the most famous, longest running communes in the country, with more than 1500 people living together at its peak!
v Early Days
§ Open membership “your badge is your belly-button.”
§ Reverence for sacred drugs…LSD
§ Free love- multiple partners, no commitment, multi-lateral relationships, no boundaries.
v Later Days
§ Practiced more traditional family values
§ After 1973, majority practiced monogamy, with prohibitions on promiscuity and pre-marital sex.
§ People encouraged to choose a job they desired
§ Rejection of capitalism-not having more than necessary
§ No alcohol, cigarettes, or hard drugs
v Today
§ In 1982, “the gate was closed,” since 1982, only about a dozen people have been accepted into the community.
§ Today, the farm is a community of 250 people.
§ They produce tofu, tempeh, and soymilk. They also publish vegetarian cookbooks and run a mail-order business that sells hard to find vegetarian foods.
Objectives
3g. What is utopia’s relation to time and history? Does a utopia stop time, as with the millennial rapture or an idea of perfection? Or can utopias change, evolve, and adapt to the changes of history?
3f. What social structures, units, or identities does utopia expose or frustrate? What changes result in child-rearing, feeding, marriage, aging, sexuality, etc.?
3a. To investigate historical, non-fiction attempts by “communes,” to put utopian ideals into practice. Admittedly, all utopian communities eventually fail (or at least submerge), but how to get beyond “They don’t work” as a discussion stopper?
Links to websites
http://www.wavygravy.net/
http://www.thefarm.org/lifestyle/index.html
http://60sfurther.com/communes-part2.htm