19th century American utopias as destratification experiments

[Δε διατίθεται περίληψη / no abstract available]The destratification experiences of a number of the moreimportant 19th century American utopias, with emphasis onthe Oneida and Shaker communities, are described and areevaluated as to individual and communal costs and benefits.While these utopian ventures were often quite successful asdestratification experiments, at least for brief periods of time,the factors that contributed to this success, and the factorsthat contributed to the longterm viability of the communitiesas social systems, were often antithetical. The implicationsof this study concerning a number of important issues instratification theory are discussed