communal societies
Groups sharing everything
Communal societies are groups whose members share property, labor, and often living arrangements.
The term typically refers to intentional communities organized around religious, political, or utopian ideals—nineteenth-century experiments like the Shakers, Oneida, or various socialist communes.
Members reject private ownership in favor of collective resources: She grew up in a communal society where no family owned their own home.
The phrase can also describe traditional cultures with communal land practices, though this usage risks romanticizing complex social systems.
- kibbutzIsraeli communal farm
- eco-villagesSustainable intentional communities
- collectivismGroup primacy doctrine
- simple livingIntentional reduction of consumption
- cooperative housingCollectively owned dwelling
worker cooperatives · barter systems · village commons · communitarianism · participatory democracy · well · group marriage · free love · mutual aid · fire · Marxism · egalitarianism · collective farming · seed · land trusts · ashram · cohousing · storytelling circles
communal societiesautocracies
Governments by single rulers
oligarchies · authoritarian regimes · monarchies · caste systems · patriarchal societies
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