Striving toward self-sufficiency: A qualitative study of mutual aid in an old order mennonite community

Most contemporary groups limit attempts of mutuality to specific instances of need. This paper reports on a qualitative study of the structures and systems of mutual aid in a traditional, closed ethnoreligious Old Order Mennonite community in Ontario. We examine the structural characteristics, systems of mutuality, tensions, and conflicts that face the community. Whether the need be material, medical, relational, emotional, moral, or spiritual, these Old Order Mennonite communities are unusual in their tenacious commitment to collective mutuality and self-sufficiency. Implications for policy and practice are discussed, including the importance of protecting and reinforcing the shock-absorbing qualities of mutual aid groups in the countervailing forces of mobility and individualism, particularly in situations of forced confrontation between conflicting cultures.