HUTTERITE

member of Hutterian Brethren, Anabaptist sect that found refuge from persecution in Moravia and the Tirol; it stressed community of goods on the model of the primitive church in Jerusalem. The community, which acquired the name of its charismatic leader, Jakob Hutter (tortured and burned as a heretic in 1536), still survives, mostly in the western sections of the United States and Canada with a population of about 20,000. In colonies of 60 to 150 persons, they operate collective farms (Bruderhof) and, not unlike the Old Order Amish, remain aloof from outside society, taking no part in politics. Children are educated inside the colony until age 14 or until a minimum age decreed by state or province. Persecutions drove the Hutterites to Hungary, the Ukraine, and in the 1870s to South Dakota; during World War I, because of persecution inspired by their pacifism, they migrated to Canada. After the war, many returned to the United States. Their high annual birth rate (45.9 per 1,000) has necessitated new colonies, sometimes to the displeasure of neighbours who distrust their communal life, object to their pacifism, and generally misunderstand their unorthodox way of life. Some areas have passed legislation to hinder the growth of Hutterite colonies. See also Amish; Mennonite. Additional reading John A. Hostetler, Hutterite Society (1975), provides a history and ethnography.