Communal work

A quilting bee is a form of communal work

Communal work is a gathering to accomplish a task or to hold a competition. A number of cultures have such gatherings, often for the purpose of holding a competition, such as a spelling bee, or for providing manual labour, such as in a barn raising, or quilting bee.

Especially in the past major jobs, such as clearing a field of timber or raising a barn, needed many workers. It was often both a social and utilitarian event. Jobs like corn husking or sewing could be done as a group to allow socializing during an otherwise tedious chore. Such gatherings often included refreshments and entertainment. Different words have been used to describe such gatherings.

Bee

History

This use of the word bee is common in literature describing colonial North America. It was, and continues to be, commonly used in Australia also, most often as "working bee".^[1][2]

In literature

Uses in literature include:

• There was a bee to-day for making a road up to the church. — Anne Langton
• The cellar … was dug by a bee in a single day. — S. G. Goodrich
• When one of the pioneers had chopped down timber and got it in shape, he would make a logging bee, get two or three gallons of New England Rum, and the next day the logs were in great heaps. ... after a while there was a carding and jutting mill started where people got their wool made into rolls, when the women spun and wove it. Sometimes the women would have spinning bees. They would put rolls among their neighbors and on a certain day they would all bring in their yarn and at night the boys would come with their fiddles for a dance. ... He never took a salary, had a farm of 80 acres [324,000 m²] and the church helped him get his wood (cut and drawn by a bee), and also his hay. — James Slocum
• "I am in a regular quandary," said the mistress of the house, when the meal was about half over. Mr. Van Brunt looked up for an instant, and asked, "What about?" "Why, how I am ever going to do to get those apples and sausage-meat done. If I go to doing 'em myself I shall about get through by spring." "Why don't you make a bee?" said Mr. Van Brunt. — Susan Warner (1851). The wide, wide world. Putnam. p. 277. 

Derivation

Because the word describes people working together in a social group, a common false etymology is that the term derives from the insect of the same name and similar social behavior. According to etymological research recorded in dictionaries, the word probably comes from dialectal been or bean (meaning "help given by neighbors"), which came from Middle English bene (meaning "prayer", "boon" and "extra service by a tenant to his lord")^[3][4]

In specific cultures

Africa

East Africa

Harambee (Swahili: [haramˈbeː]) is an East African (Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan) tradition of community self-help events, e.g. fundraising or development activities. Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms.

Sudan

Naffīr (نفير) is an Arabic word used in parts of Sudan (including Kordofan, Darfur, parts of the Nuba mountains and Kassala) to describe particular types of communal work undertakings. Naffīr has been described as including a group recruited through family networks, in-laws and village neighbors for some particular purpose, which then disbands when that purpose is fulfilled.^[5] An alternative, more recent, definition describes naffīr as "to bring someone together from the neighborhood or community to carry out a certain project, such as building a house or providing help during the harvest season."^[6]

The word may be related to the standard Arabic word nafr (نفر) which describes a band, party, group or troop, typically mobilized for war. In standard Arabic, a naffīr āmm (نفير عام) refers to a general call to arms.^[7]

Naffīr has also been used in a military context in Sudan. For example, the term was used to refer to the an-Naffīr ash-Sha'abī or "People's Militias" that operated in the central Nuba Mountains region in the early 1990s.^[8]

Asia

Southeast Asia

Gotong-royong is a conception of sociality familiar to large parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. The phrase has been translated into English in many ways, most of which hearken to the conception of reciprocity or mutual aid. For M. Nasroen, gotong royong forms one of the core tenets of Indonesian philosophy. Paul Michael Taylor and Lorraine V. Aragon state that "gotong royong [is] cooperation among many people to attain a shared goal."^[9]

Background

In a 1983 essay Clifford Geertz points to the importance of gotong royong in Indonesian life:

An enormous inventory of highly specific and often quite intricate institutions for effecting the cooperation in work, politics, and personal relations alike, vaguely gathered under culturally charged and fairly well indefinable value-images--rukun ("mutual adjustment"), gotong royong ("joint bearing of burdens"), tolong-menolong ("reciprocal assistance")--governs social interaction with a force as sovereign as it is subdued.^[10]

Anthropologist Robert A. Hahn writes:

Javanese culture is stratified by social class and by level of adherence to Islam. ...Traditional Javanese culture does not emphasize material wealth. ...There is respect for those who contribute to the general village welfare over personal gain. And the spirit of gotong royong, or volunteerism, is promoted as a cultural value.^[11]

Gotong royong has long functioned as the scale of the village, as a moral conception of the political economy. However, as the political economy became more privatized, capitalistic, and individualistic, gotong royong has probably waned. Pottier records the impact of the Green Revolution in Java:

"Before the GR, 'Java' had relatively 'open' markets, in which many local people were rewarded in kind. With the GR, rural labour markets began to foster 'exclusionary practices'... This resulted in a general loss of rights, especially secure harvesting rights within a context of mutual cooperation, known as gotong royong."

Citing Ann Laura Stoler's ethnography from the 1970s, Pottier writes that cash was replacing exchange, that old patron-client ties were breaking, and that social relations were becoming characterized more by employer-employee qualities.^[12]

Political appropriation

For Prime Minister Muhammad Natsir, gotong royong was an ethical principle of sociality, in marked contrast to both the "unchecked" feudalism of the West, and the social anomie of capitalism.^[13]

Ideas of reciprocity, ancient and deeply enmeshed aspects of kampung morality, were seized upon by postcolonial politicians. John Sidel writes: "Ironically, national-level politicians drew on " village conceptions of adat and gotong royong. They drew on notions "of traditional community to justify new forms of authoritarian rule." ^[14]

During the presidency of Sukarno, the idea of gotong royong was officially elevated to a central tenet of Indonesian life. For Sukarno, the new nation was to be synonymous with gotong royong. He said that the Pancasila could be reduced to the idea of gotong royong. On June 1, 1945, Sukarno said of the Pancasila:

The first two principles, nationalism and internationalism, can be pressed to one, which I used to call 'socionationalism.' Similarly with democracy 'which is not the democracy of the West' together with social justice for all can be pressed down to one, and called socio democracy. Finally - belief in God. 'And so what originally was five has become three: socio nationalism, socio democracy, and belief in God.' 'If I press down five to get three, and three to get one, then I have a genuine Indonesian term - GOTONG ROYONG [mutual co-operation]. The state of Indonesia which we are to establish should be a state of mutual co-operation. How fine that is ! A Gotong Royong state!^[15]

In 1960, Sukarno dissolved the elected parliament and implemented the Gotong Royong Parliament. Governor of Jakarta, Ali Sadikin, spoke of a desire to reinvigorate urban areas with village sociality, with gotong royong.^[16] Suharto's New Order was characterized by much discourse about tradition. During the New Order, Siskamling harnessed the idea of gotong royong. By the 1990s, if not sooner, gotong royong had been "fossilized" by New Order sloganeering.^[17] During the presidency of Megawati, the Gotong Royong Cabinet was implemented. It lasted from 2001 to 2004.

Philippines

Members of the community volunteering to move a house to new location. Though no longer commonplace, this method of moving houses has become a traditional symbol for the concept of bayanihan.

Bayanihan (pronounced [ˌbajɐˈniːhan]) is a Filipino term taken from the word bayan, referring to a nation, country, town or community. The whole term bayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective.

Etymology

The origin of the term bayanihan can be traced from a common tradition in Philippine towns where community members volunteer to help a family move to a new place by volunteering to transport the house to a specific location. The process involves literally carrying the house to its new location. This is done by putting bamboo poles forming a strong frame to lift the stilts from the ground and carrying the whole house with the men positioned at the ends of each pole. The tradition also features a small fiesta hosted by the family to express gratitude to the volunteers.

Usage

In society, bayanihan has been adopted as a term to refer to a local civil effort to resolve national issues. One of the first groups to use the term is the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company which travels to countries to perform traditional folk dances of the country with the objective of promoting Philippine culture. The concept is related to damayán ("to help one another").

In computing, the term bayanihan has evolved into many meanings and incorporated as codenames to projects that depict the spirit of cooperative effort involving a community of members. An example of these projects is the Bayanihan Linux project which is a Philippines-based desktop-focused Linux distribution.

In ethnic newspapers, Bayanihan News is the name of community newspaper for the Philippine community in Australia. It is in English and in Filipino with regular news and articles on Philippine current events and history. It was established in October 1998 in Sydney, Australia.

Turkey

Imece is a name given for a traditional Turkish village-scale collaboration. For example, if a couple is getting married, villagers participate in the overall organization of the ceremony including but not limited to preparation of the celebration venue, food, building and settlement of the new house for the newly weds. Tasks are often distributed according to expertise and has no central authority to govern activities.

Europe

Finland & the Baltics

A tent is being raised on talkoot for midsummer in Ylimuonio 2005.

Talkoot (from Finnish: talkoo, almost always used in plural, talkoot) is a Finnish expression for a gathering of friends and neighbors to accomplish a task. The word is borrowed into Finland Swedish as talko,^[18] but is unknown to most Swedes, however, the same term and in approximately the same context is used in Estonia (talgu(d)),^[19] in Latvia (noun talka, verb talkot) and in Lithuania (noun talka, verb talkauti). It is the cultural equivalent of common work in a village community, although adapted to the conditions of Finland, where traditionally most families lived in isolated farms often miles away from the nearest village.

A talkoot is by definition voluntary and the work is unpaid. The voluntary nature might be imaginary, due to social pressure, especially in small communities and honour and reputation may be severely damaged by non-attendance or laziness. The task of the talkoot may be something that is a common concern for the good of the group or it may be to help someone with a task that exceeds his or her own capacity. For instance, elderly neighbours or relatives can need help if their house or garden is damaged by storm or siblings can agree to arrange a party for a parent's special birthday as a talkoot.

Typically, club houses, landings, churches and parish halls can be repaired through a talkoot or environmental tasks for the neighborhood are undertaken. The parents of pre-school children may gather to improve the playground or the tenants of a tenement house may arrange a talkoot to put their garden in order for the summer or winter. A person unable to contribute with actual work may contribute food for the talkoot party, or act as a baby-sitter. When a talkoot is for the benefit of an individual he or she is the host of the talkoot party and is obliged to offer food and drinks according to capacity.

Ireland

Meitheal (Irish pronunciation: [ˈmɛhəl]) is the Irish word for a work team, gang, or party and denotes the co-operative labour system in Ireland where groups of neighbours help each other in turn with farming work such as harvesting crops.^[20]

The term is used in various writings of Irish language authors. It can convey the idea of community spirit in which neighbours respond to each other's needs. In modern use for example, a meitheal could be a party of neighbours and friends invited to help decorate a house in exchange for food and drink, or in scouting, where volunteer campsite wardens maintain campsites around Ireland.

Norway

Dugnad is a Norwegian term for voluntary work done together with other people.^[21] It's a very core phenomenon for Norwegians and the word was voted as the Norwegian word of the year 2004 in the TV programme «Typisk Norsk» ("Typical Norwegian"). Participation in a dugnad is often followed by a common meal, served by the host.

In urban areas, the dugnad is most commonly identified with outdoor spring cleaning and gardening in housing co-operatives. Dugnader, Dugnads, are also a big phenomenon in kindergartens and elementary schools to make the area nice, clean and safe and to do decorating etc. such as painting and other types of maintenance. Dugnader occur more widely in remote and rural areas. Neighbours sometime participate during house or garage building, and organizations (such as kindergartens or non-profit organisations) may arrange annual dugnader.

The Norwegian word "Dugnadsånd" is translatable to the spirit of will to work together for a better community. Many Norwegians will describe this as a typical Norwegian thing to have.

Serbia

Moba (Serbian: моба) is an old Serbian tradition of communal self-help in villages. It was a request for help in labor-intensive activities, like harvesting wheat, building a church or repairing village roads.

Work was entirely voluntary and no compensation, except possibly meals for workers, was expected.

North America

Cherokee

Gadugi (Cherokee:ᎦᏚᎩ) is a term used in the Cherokee language which means "working together"^[22] or "cooperative labor" within a community.^[23] Historically, the word referred to a labor gang of men and/or women working together for projects such as harvesting crops or tending to gardens of elderly or infirm tribal members.^[24] The word Gadugi was derived from the Cherokee word for "bread", which is Gadu.

In recent years the Cherokee Nation tribal government has promoted the concept of Gadugi. The GaDuGi Health Center is a tribally run clinic in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. The concept is becoming more widely known. In Lawrence, Kansas, in 2004 the rape crisis center affiliated with the University of Kansas, adopted the name, the Gadugi Safe Center, for its programs to aid all people affected by sexual violence.^[22]

Gadugi is the name of a font included with Microsoft Windows 8 that includes support for the Cherokee language along with other languages of the Americas such as Inuktitut.

South America

Quechua

Mink'a or minka (Quechua^[25][26] or Kichwa,^[27] Hispanicized minca, minga) is a type of traditional communal work in the Andes in favor of the whole community (ayllu). Participants are traditionally paid in kind. Mink'a is still practiced in indigenous communities in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile, especially among the Quechua and the Aymara.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Communal work.