FROM COMMUNAL PILGRIMS TO FAMILY HOUSEHOLDERS: THE MORAVIANS IN BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, 1742 - 1844 (SECULARIZATION, WOMEN, CHILDREN, COLONIAL)

The Moravians in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania are unique and interesting subjects for an ethnographic and historical study. As people of primarily German background, they offer a much needed comparison to the American groups of English extraction who have been emphasized in most studies of colonial and early nineteenth century America. In addition, they experienced an unusually radical institutional change from a communal settlement with a strong religious mission to a community of nuclear families in a privatized economy. The institutional change has been described by Gillian Gollin in Moravians in Two Worlds. This study assumes this change as a base and traces its effects at a more personal level over Bethlehem\u27s first century. One chapter analyzes the unusually accurate marriage, birth, death, migration, and census records in order to build a picture of the demographic response to institutional change. Another chapter traces changes in the organization and use of buildings and the sharing of resources. Three chapters trace changes in cultural norms by analyzing the content in a stratified sample of biographies about Moravian men, women, children, and infants. Written to be read at people\u27s funerals, these biographies were also read on other occasions and served as devices for socialization. Because they were idealizations, they are perfect sources for a study of changing norms. These biographies were analyzed using an adaptation of Zellig Harris\u27 discourse analysis --a formal technique which allowed a finely tuned study of changing content. Each kind of analysis enriched our understanding of the profound effect of Bethlehem\u27s institutional change on the everyday lives of its ordinary people. Although the change was intended to modify only the economic and social organization, it actually altered the most intimate facts of people\u27s lives: the rates of marriage, birth, death, and migration; the degree to which Bethlehem\u27s resources were shared; and the ideals which governed people\u27s behavior. Within one hundred years, Bethlehem had changed from a communal society of symbolic Brothers and Sisters almost monastically focused on simple living and religious service, to a privatized community of socially stratified families, whose cultural ideal was usefulness to family and society