Hopi

The Hopi (Hopituh Shi-nu-mu - "The Peaceful People" or "Peaceful Little Ones")are an indigenous, agricultural people in present-day "Arizona" with a tradition of egalitarianism, gender equality, common ownership and anarcho-communist economics.

Decision-Making

Each village was autonomous and determined its social and ceremonial organization according to its own interpretation of clan migration traditions. Households confederated into clans, clans into phatries, phatries into villages and villages into Mesas. There are thirteen villages and three Mesas.

Crime

Violence and crime was extremely rare in Hopi society. Peter Gelderloos describes an interesting system of restorative justice:

The Hopi of southwestern North America used to be more warlike than in recent times. Factions still exist within Hopi villages, but they overcome conflict through cooperation in rituals, and they use shame and leveling mechanisms with people who are boastful or domineering. When disputes get out of hand, they use ritual clown skits at kachina dances to mock the people involved. The Hopi offer an example of a society that gave up feuding and developed rituals to cultivate a more peaceful disposition. The image of clowns and dances being used to solve disputes gives a tantalizing glimpse of humor and art as means for responding to common problems. There is a world of possibilities more interesting than general assemblies or mediation processes! Artistic conflict resolution encourages new ways of looking at problems, and subverts the possibility of permanent mediators or meeting facilitators gaining power by monopolizing the role of arbiter.

Economy

The Hopi practiced a form of anarcho-communism rooted in common ownership and a gift economy. The traditional society of the Hopi was geared entirely toward group solidarity. Nearly all the basic tasks of the community, from planting to food preparation, were done cooperatively. Together with the adults, children participated in most of these tasks. At every age level, the individual was charged with a sense of responsibility for the community.

Culture

Hopi legend suggests that god is the 'Spider Grandmother' who had overseen humanity's emergence from the past three previous realms into the current world. It left humanity with two rules:

1. Don't go around hurting eachother
2. Try to understand things

Hopi culture also had a strongly anti-authoritarian, communal and ecological dimension to it.

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The US government destroyed Hopi autonomy in 1890, as the Dawes Act forcibly imposed private property onto their lands. In 1934, the US forced a tribal government onto them made up of religious converts, who leased their lands to mining companies who profited from coal, natural gas and metal extraction. This dispossessed the Hopi and polluted the land.