The Migrating Sect: An Illustration from Early Norwegian Immigration

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Migrating sects are frequently disorganized, making them very unlike the ideal-typical, “stationary,” sect, a cohesive body of “intimate personal fellowship.” It is suggested that: (1) the sect's cohesion is based on value-consensus, not collective interdependence, (2) value-consensus is insufficient to hold together a migrating sect, and (3) intense value-consensus may even contribute to the sect's disorganization by: (a) minimizing the importance of subsistence problems inevitable in the migration setting, thus making less likely their solution, and (b) moving sectarians to define conflicts in ideological terms, thus leading to schism and defection. The argument is illustrated from early Norwegian immigration.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: