Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Graduate School Collection WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship 2012 Finding common ground: when the hippie counterculture immigrated to a rural redwood community Lisa Gruwell Spicer Western Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Spicer, Lisa Gruwell, "Finding common ground: when the hippie counterculture immigrated to a rural redwood community" (2012). WWU Graduate School Collection. 246. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/246 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Graduate School Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Finding Common Ground: When the Hippie Counterculture Immigrated to a Rural Redwood Community By Lisa Gruwell Spicer Accepted in Partial Completion Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Kathleen L. Kitto, Dean of the Graduate School ADVISORY COMMITTEE Chair, Dr. Joyce Hammond Dr. James Loucky Professor Kathleen Saunders MASTER’S THESIS In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment for the requirements for a master’s degree at Western Washington University, I grant to Western Washington University the non-exclusive royalty-free right to archive, reproduce, distribute, and display the thesis in any and all forms, including electronic format, via any digital library mechanisms maintained by WWU. I represent and warrant this is my original work, and does not infringe or violate any rights of others. I warrant that I have obtained written permissions from the owner of any third party copyrighted material included in these files. 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Lisa Gruwell Spicer Date: November 9, 2012 Finding Common Ground: When the Hippie Counterculture Immigrated to a Rural Redwood Community A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Western Washington University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements of the Degree Master of Arts by Lisa Gruwell Spicer November 2012 Abstract Youth of the 1960s took a collective stand against the establishment, challenging hegemonic forces intent on turning an informed citizenry into mere consumers; hypocrisy from the highest levels of government (Harrington 1962) was challenged by students, college enrollment was unprecedented (Roszak 1968). Unable to cause change at the top, scores of young people dropped out of mainstream culture in search of a better way to live (Miller 1991). Back-to-the- landers are the surviving members of the counterculture movement (Jacob 1997). Different from Sixties’ political radicals or utopian commune hippies, the back-to-the-land movement is evidence of counterculture success and provides an ideological model for community building. A hamlet in northern California is a model in community building because it exhibits the essential qualities of a resilient community: social cohesion, participatory decision-making, and shared commitment to environmental integrity (Theobald 1991). Immigrant generated conflict prevailed there during the early 1970s, based on fear. Serendipitously, residents created relationships and discovered common ground (Lamphere 1992). Smith and Krannich confirm, given an opportunity, newcomers and old-timers will discover they have more in common than previously believed (2009). Community members acknowledged their shared values, what Sumner terms the civil commons (2005); they established a unique kind of communitas of people and place (Turner 1969), iv sustained by frequent experiences of collective effervescence (Durkheim 1912) at events supporting both common and individual interests. Born in 1960, my life began with the counterculture. A consequence of “free love,” my hippie parents divorced in 1969; my mother, with four daughters, joined the back-to-the-land movement. Personal experience transforms this ethnography into autoethnography (Ellis and Bochner 2000). During a year of participant observation fieldwork (Spradley 1980), I returned to the town where I came of age as a hippie kid to discover how the people established peace. v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................... iv List of Figures and Tables ...................................................................... vii Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Theory: Counterculture, Communitas, and Communities ..... 13 Chapter 2: Methodology: Resources and Autoethnography ................... 38 Chapter 3: Regional Context: Historical Cycles of People and Place ..... 62 Chapter 4: Comptche in the 1970s: Land, Children, Fire. ...................... 71 Chapter 5: Gathering Places and Events ............................................... 99 Chapter 6: Traditions and Common Ground ........................................... 117 Chapter 7: Conclusion: Thanking the Elders and Ancestors .................. 134 Appendices: A. Recruitment flyer .................................................................... 149 B. Participant Questionnaire ....................................................... 150 C. 2012 Community Quilt ............................................................ 159 D. Map: North Coast of California ............................................... 160 E. Map: Mendocino County ......................................................... 161 F. Community Presentation Flyer ............................................... 162 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 163 vi List of Figures and Tables Figures: 1. Cultural Paradigm: Comptche in the 1970s ................................. 75 2. Comptche CAC Projected Growth ............................................... 120 Tables: 1. Slang referring to “the Other” ....................................................... 51 2. Source of Livelihood .................................................................... 84 3. Home Amenities in 1970s Comptche ........................................... 87 4. Acquiring Country Living Skills ..................................................... 91 5. Differences in the Other ............................................................... 96 6. Kinds of Community Gatherings .................................................. 100 7. Kinds of Religious Stance ............................................................ 103 vii Introduction “Hippies took over our swimmin’ holes. There’d be a lot of nudies of both sexes in the river all day where we used to swim,” a Comptche old-timer explained to me in a distinctive accent that revealed Finnish ancestry. The remote timber community nestled on the north coast of California was settled by immigrants from Eastern Europe. I grew up in Comptche, arriving as a ten-year- old in a family who had joined the back-to-the-land movement. Listening to the elder Finn I had known in my youth, I felt a sympathetic resonance with “the Other” that I had not understood as a child. What did it feel like when the hippies moved to town? Returning in 2011 to conduct ethnographic research in Comptche (pronounced “comp-she”) gave me a chance to understand and articulate what I could not in my youth. I was motivated by the sense that something unique happened in this town during the Seventies, when an immigration wave of back- to-the-landers to the rural redwood community with long-term residents effected positive social change—after a rough period of conflict. The research participants all agreed that something noteworthy happened in this small town, which is why they chose to contribute their thoughts, experiences, reflections—we all wanted to understand what happened. The variety of views among participants regarding what brought social change ranged from “children” to “time.” Just one respondent came close, surmising peace came to Comptche through “potlucks.” My findings revealed that it was community events that provide common ground and a way for newcomers to integrate into the Comptche community. Community Events and Common Ground The great social science ancestors Emile Durkheim (1858-1971) and Victor Turner (1920-1983) established that social gatherings and rituals are vital elements in healthy communities. Durkheim explains that collective effervescence, or exuberant social events, support social cohesion that contributes to a healthy community. Events in Comptche attract people to common ground who otherwise live in remote settings. Social gatherings are a key element in understanding what works well in Comptche because they create a synergy between people and place. These synergistic gatherings, in turn, support a virtual civil commons as they provide a unity of purpose (Sumner 2005). The result is rural resilience. This