The Hutterites are distinct in living on communal agricultural colonies where land, buildings, and income are held by the colony rather than by individuals or families.
The Hutterites descend from Anabaptists who gathered under Jakob Hutter in Moravia in 1528 and adopted community of goods. Persecution drove them through Europe and Russia to North America in the 1870s, and today most Hutterite colonies are in Canada and the northern United States. Colonies divide to form a new colony when they grow to roughly 150 people.
Sources
Primary
- Peter Riedemann, Confession of Faith of the Hutterites (1540)
Secondary
- John A. Hostetler, Hutterite Society (1974)