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Oneida Community

Wikipedia · 2026

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2026-09-01

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EstablishedThe Oneida Community practised complex marriage, in which every member was regarded as married to every other, under community rules regulating sexual relations and parenthood.EstablishedMutual criticism, by the whole community or a committee, was the community's main instrument of discipline; Noyes described it as taking the place of backbiting, and Britannica calls it a shaming technique that enforced social control.EstablishedIn 1879 Noyes advised abandoning complex marriage; the members reorganised in 1881 as a joint-stock company, Oneida Community, Ltd., which continued the industries as a commercial enterprise.EstablishedFrom 1869 the community ran stirpiculture, a programme in which a committee approved and paired parents; some historians describe it as an early American eugenics experiment.