Commune

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Commune

Home > Library > Literature & Language > Webster 1913

v. i. (kŏm*mūn")

[imp. & p. p. Communed (kŏm*mūnd"); p. pr. & vb. n. Communing.]
[OF. communier, fr. L. communicare to communicate, fr. communis common. See Common, and cf. Communicate.]

1. To converse together with sympathy and confidence; to interchange sentiments or feelings; to take counsel.

I would commune with you of such things
That want no ear but yours.
Shak.

2. To receive the communion; to partake of the eucharist or Lord's supper.

To commune under both kinds.
Bp. Burnet.

To commune with one's self or one's heart, to think; to reflect; to meditate.

Com·mune
n. (kŏm"mūn)

Communion; sympathetic intercourse or conversation between friends.

For days of happy commune dead.
Tennyson.

Com·mune
n. (kŏm"mūn)

[F., fr. commun. See Common.]

1. The commonalty; the common people. [Obs.] Chaucer.

In this struggle -- to use the technical words of the time -- of the «commune», the general mass of the inhabitants, against the «prudhommes» or «wiser» few.
J. R. Green.

2. A small territorial district in France under the government of a mayor and municipal council; also, the inhabitants, or the government, of such a district. See Arrondissement.

3. Absolute municipal self-government.

4. a group of people living together as an organized community and owning in common most or all of their property and possessions, and sharing work, income, and many other aspects of daily life. Such sommunities are oftten organized based on religious or idealistic principles, and they sometimes have unconventional lifestyles, practises, or moral codes.
[PJC]

The Commune of Paris, or The Commune (a) The government established in Paris (1792-94) by a usurpation of supreme power on the part of representatives chosen by the communes; the period of its continuance is known as the «Reign of Terror.» (b) The revolutionary government, modeled on the commune of 1792, which the communists, so called, attempted to establish in 1871.

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Political Dictionary: commune
Home > Library > History, Politics & Society > Political Dictionary

In its older and neutral senses, the lowest unit of local government in a number of countries, especially France. Two ideologically charged meanings have emerged for historical reasons:

(1) The (politicians who controlled the) Paris Commune of 1870-1 included radical socialists who tried to run the government on revolutionary principles until their military defeat. Their use of the title echoed its use by the similarly revolutionary Commune which controlled Paris (and could often coerce the National Convention) between 1792 and 1794. The Commune of 1870-1 was idealized by Marx.
2 Any group of people living together and sharing possessions; but used usually with the implication that the people in question hold radical or revolutionary views.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: commune
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Group of people living together who hold property in common and live according to a set of principles usually arrived at or endorsed by the group. The utopian socialism of Robert Dale Owen and others led to experimental communities of this sort in the early 19th century in Britain and the U.S., including New Harmony, Brook Farm, and the Oneida Community. Many communes are inspired by religious principles; monastic life is essentially communal (see monasticism). B. F. Skinner's Walden Two (1948) inspired many American attempts at communal living, especially in the late 1960s and early 1970s. See also collective farm, communitarianism, kibbutz, moshav.

For more information on commune, visit Britannica.com.

 
Wine Lover's Companion: commune
Home > Library > Food & Cooking > Wine Lover's Companion

[KAHM-myoon] A word used to describe a small administrative district, generally comprised of a village and the land (including vineyards) surrounding it.

 
Word Tutor: commune
Home > Library > Literature & Language > Spelling & Usage
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: To be in respectful harmony with.

pronunciation Lillian enjoyed hiking and a chance to commune with nature.

Tutor's tip: People who truly "commune" (to be in close harmony with) nature are no longer "common" (widespread).

 
Wikipedia: Commune (intentional community)
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A commune is a kind of intentional community where most resources are shared and there is little or no personal property (as opposed to a community that only shares housing).

Since the term 'commune' currently conjures images of the hippie communes of the 1960s and '70s, the term 'intentional community' is more often used where 'commune' would have been forty years ago. There are many contemporary intentional communities all over the world, a list of which can be found at the Online Communities Directory.

Categorization of communes

Benjamin Zablocki categorized communes this way:

Of course, many communal ventures encompass more than one of these categorizations.

Some communes, like the ashrams of the Vedanta Society or the Theosophical commune Lomaland, formed around spiritual leaders; while some communes formed around political ideologies. For others, the "glue" is simply the desire for a more shared, sociable lifestyle. Moreover, some people find it is just more economical to live communally. Many contemporary squatters pool their resources in this way, forming urban communes in unoccupied buildings.

Marxist Commune

The commune is an important element of Marxist theory. Within Marxism it is seen as the main body of political organization during the first phase of communist society (socialism). The commune is the rational tool for the proletariat to govern their state, just as the parliament is the tool for the bourgeoisie to govern their state.

Marx explains the purpose and function of the commune during the period that he termed the dictatorship of the proletariat:


“ The Commune, was to be a working, not a parliamentary, body, executive and legislative at the same time...Instead of deciding once in three or six years which member of the ruling class was to represent and repress the people in parliament, universal suffrage was to serve the people constituted in communes, as individual suffrage serves every other employer in the search for workers, foremen and accountants for his business.[1] ”

Basing himself on his study of The Civil War in France he details how the commune is to function if it is to serve workers in the governance of their state. He also details how the commune must use its powers to prevent the capitalists from destroying the newly formed workers' state:


“ The Commune was formed of the municipal councillors, chosen by universal suffrage in the various wards of the town, responsible and revocable at any time. The majority of its members were naturally working men, or acknowledged representatives of the working class.... The police, which until then had been the instrument of the Government, was at once stripped of its political attributes, and turned into the responsible, and at all times revocable, agent of the Commune. So were the officials of all other branches of the administration. From the members of the Commune downwards, the public service had to be done at workmen's wages. The privileges and the representation allowances of the high dignitaries of state disappeared along with the high dignitaries themselves.... Having once got rid of the standing army and the police, the instruments of physical force of the old government, the Commune proceeded at once to break the instrument of spiritual suppression, the power of the priests.... The judicial functionaries lost that sham independence... they were thenceforward to be elective, responsible, and revocable.[2] ”

Clearly the commune is to have a much higher purpose than the government of each city. Marx again turns to the Paris Commune in his analysis. Here he advocates what would later be known as Soviet democracy:


“ In a brief sketch of national organization which the Commune had no time to develop, it states explicitly that the Commune was to be the political form of even the smallest village.... The communes were to elect the "National Delegation" in Paris. The few but important functions which would still remain for a central government were not to be suppressed, as had been deliberately mis-stated, but were to be transferred to communal, i.e., strictly responsible, officials. National unity was not to be broken, but, on the contrary, organized by the communal constitution; it was to become a reality by the destruction of state power which posed as the embodiment of that unity yet wanted to be independent of, and superior to, the nation, on whose body it was but a parasitic excrescence. While the merely repressive organs of the old governmental power were to be amputated, its legitimate functions were to be wrested from an authority claiming the right to stand above society, and restored to the responsible servants of society.[3] ”

Communes in United States

Although communes are most frequently associated with the hippie movement-- the "back-to-the-land" ventures of the 1960s and 1970s-- there is a long history of communes in America.

A few notable examples include:

  • Fruitlands was a commune founded in 1843 by Amos Bronson Alcott in Harvard, Massachusetts. The tempo of life in this Transcendentalist community is recorded by Alcott's daughter, Louisa May Alcott, in her piece "Transcendental Wild Oats."
  • The Oneida Society was a commune that lasted from 1848 to 1881 in Oneida, New York. Although this utopian experiment is better known today for its manufacture of Oneida silverware, it was one of the longest-running communes in American history.
  • The commune Modern Times was formed in 1851 in Long Island.
  • The anarchist Home Colony was formed in 1895 across the Puget Sound from Tacoma, Washington on Key Peninsula, and lasted until 1919.

Communes in the world

Beyond the United States, there have been other famous communes, such as the Paris Commune of 1871. (Of course, many cultures naturally practice communal living, and wouldn't designate their way of life as a planned 'commune' per se, though their living situation may have many characteristics of a commune.) One of the examples of communal living is kibbutzim in Israel.

Bibliography

  • Margaret Hollenback, Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage Commune (University of New Mexico Press, 2004), ISBN 0-8263-3463-6.
  • Timothy Miller, "Assault on Eden: A Memoir of Communal Life in the Early '70s", Utopian Studies, Vol. 8, 1997.
  • Laurence R. Veysey, The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth Century America (1978).
  • Benjamin Zablocki, The Joyful Community: An Account of the Bruderhof: A Communal Movement Now in Its Third Generation (University of Chicago Press, 1971, reissued 1980), ISBN 0-226-97749-8. (The 1980 edition of the Whole Earth Catalog called this book "the best and most useful book on communes that's been written".)
  • Benjamin Zablocki, Alienation and Charisma: A Study of Contemporary American Communes (The Free Press, 1980), ISBN 0-02-935780-2.

See also

References

  1. ^ Marx and Engels, The Civil War in France
  2. ^ Marx and Engels, The Civil War in France
  3. ^ Marx and Engels, The Civil War in France

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
Translations: Translations for: Commune
Home > Library > Literature & Language > Translations

Dansk (Danish)
1.
v. intr. - kommunikere, gå til alters, omgås fortroligt

2.
n. - kommune, kollektiv, gruppe, storfamilie

Nederlands (Dutch)
commune, woongroep, woongemeenschap, Parijse Commune (historisch), kleinste administratieve regio (Frankrijk), intiem spreken, zich één voelen met, Heilige Communie ontvangen

Français (French)
1.
v. intr. - communier, être en communion avec, s'unir à qn (par la prière), converser intimement avec, (Relig) communier (arch)

2.
n. - communauté, (Admin) commune (Europe continentale), (Hist) la Commune

Deutsch (German)
1.
v. - Zwiesprache halten, kommunizieren

2.
n. - Kommune, Gemeinde

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κοινότητα (νομού, επαρχίας κ.λπ.), κοινόβιο, Κομούνα (των Παρισίων)
v. - επικοινωνώ, συνδιαλέγομαι, (θρησκ.) μεταλαμβάνω, κοινωνώ (των αχράντων μυστηρίων)

Italiano (Italian)
comune

Português (Portuguese)
n. - comuna (f), povo (m)
v. - comungar (Ecles.)

Русский (Russian)
коммуна

Español (Spanish)
1.
v. intr. - comulgar

2.
n. - comuna

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kommun, kollektiv
v. - umgås förtroligt med, begå nattvarden

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
1. 亲密交谈, 领受圣餐, 融为一体

2. 亲密的交谈

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 親密的交談

2.
v. intr. - 親密交談, 領受聖餐, 融為一體

한국어 (Korean)
1.
v. intr. - 친하게 사귀다, 성찬을 받다

2.
n. - 지방자치제, 집단농장

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 親しく交わる, 聖餐を受ける
n. - コミューン, 地方自治体, 原始共同体, パリコミューヌ, 集団農場, ミール

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) وحدة اداريه في فرنسا (فعل) حادث بهمس, ناجى‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. intr. - ‮הסתודד, שוחח‬
n. - ‮קבוצה, קומונה‬

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Dictionary. Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy  Read more
Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wine Lover's Companion. Wine Lover's Companion. Copyright © 2003 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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