FREE COOPERATIVES, NOT COMMUNES: First Century Essenes

Cooperative living takes many forms. The Essenes, in the first century, appear to have lived cooperatively, with individual mini-homesteads. They contributed time to the collective, while also spending individual time gardening, studying, etc. From what I can tell, the Essenes followed a patriarchal, monotheistic theology. This is not an article about the Essenes' religious beliefs. Most literature about the "Brotherhood of the Essenes" does not address women, children, or family life for men with children, so it seems this truly was a fraternity. The religious dogma and patriarchal/paternalistic language associated with the Essenes turns me off to their whole religious experience, personally, but I do find their communal living practices interesting and worthy of note.

Edmond B. Szekely, in "The Essene Way," June 1976, (an original zine if I ever saw one) writes that Plinius was a contemporary visitor to the Essenes' Dead Sea complex. Szekely says that Plinius wrote 2 scrolls about the Essenes, and Szekely found copies of them at a Benedictine monastery in 1923. According to Plinius, each Essene had their own house that was "2 human lengths by one and a half human lengths" or approximately 4 yards by 3 yards by 2 yards high. That may sound really small, but that much private space in the communes I've stayed with is unheard of. For years I'd see a closet and joke it was a "Love Family Suite." Space was at such a shortage in the Love Family that people who got to sleep in closets, with relative privacy, were considered privileged. I never had my own room in the Source Family either. With 10 people living in a 2 bedroom house, we made due. So although these Essene houses seem small, they lend an autonomy rarely found in communal models I have experienced.

The Essene houses supposedly had a flat roof with a slight slant and a cistern below to catch rain water. The door was to the north and the east and west walls had windows. There was a 1 yard wide by 2 yards long wooden bed, and a table of the same length. Along the inside of the south wall was a storage area for tools, germinating seeds and food storage. Along the east and west outside walls were planters with 4-6 inches of soil in them, growing greens the Essenes ate daily. The Essene diet consisted primarily of nuts, fruits, vegetables, seeds, greens, and sprouts. Each small house was surrounded by a 16 yard by 16 yard square garden, with fruit trees planted only 2 1/2 yards apart to equal about 4 dozen trees. The tree branches created a living canopy to temper the desert heat and sun for the garden below. (The Essenes were considered botanical geniuses as they had flourishing gardens in desert lands no one wanted). They had libraries, played music, gardened, and made wine and other foods. What they didn't consume, they sold and traded for other products. While they shared communally in some activities, self-sufficiency was highly valued.

I find this idea of individual small houses and gardens intriguing as it would help women not end up the servants, as happens in many communes and society at large. In the Source family, we were actually taught to recite "Man's job is to protect and provide. Woman's job is to serve and inspire." I never was really sure what that meant, especially when "my man" was not "providing," I was. So I was providing, inspiring, serving, and he was protecting. Hmmm. I have yet to stay at a commune where women do not do a disproportionate amount of housecleaning, dishwashing, nursing, childcare, and other essential unpaid daily services, compared to the men involved. I think this idea of individual homesteads may actually appeal to women more than men at the onset, as it would make men do their own cooking, cleaning, dishes and laundry, etc., things that consume hours of women's days in many communes, and in everyday society also. With individual homesteads, men would have to be responsible at least for themselves, and it would free women up, honestly. Yet we would still be able to exchange skills amongst ourselves in the communal time, such as sewing for carpentry, cooking for childcare, computer skills for tilling, etc.

The "Brotherhood" of the Essenes would need to be tweaked to include family, i.e., women and children, into the mix. And I am weary of communes, as I have been in too many where women become the unpaid servants. Szekely said "the ancient Essene Brotherhoods, were not communes, but free cooperatives of completely independent, free, creative good neighbors..." Well, I'd trade my apartment for the small cabin and garden space Szekely describes at the Essene settlements. Hell, a very small but secure cabin, and a safe garden plot, are more than most people on earth will be able to achieve this lifetime, due to capitalism and land ownership. And perhaps more than an individual should have. But as we explore alternative community models, this is some food for thought.

Kirsten Anderberg. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint/publish, please contact Kirsten at kirstena@resist.ca.

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