How do the Amish, Gypsies, Oneida, and Father Divine Movement support the definition of community?
The Amish are a true community. Even with some sectarian differences they still view themselves as being separate from the world and in need of each other. They have a broad set of rules by which they live and have the means of enforcing those rules (as with the threat of the Meidung or by basic means of social control such as gossip and ridicule). They also have a society in which everyone (except for the difference between the sexes) is basically the same. They deliberately exclude whatever might be a means of making differences apparent -- no display means no display of relative wealth, for example.
The interdependence of the Amish is almost complete and any exceptions from it (that is, turning to the outside world) is carefully regulated in the spirit of keeping themselves separate. The rest of the world is an evil place for the Amish and this makes home, the community, the only safe place for them.
The Gypsies do not usually occupy a definite physical territory but in every other sense they fit the definition of community. In place of a territory to occupy the Gypsies establish a kind of metaphorical territory with their own homes. Everything is centered around the home and no one from the outside is ever allowed in. Thus there is a territory in which only Gypsies can enter and it is as rigidly enclosed, maybe even more so, than an Amish settlement. Living among the outsiders forces the Gypsies to conceptualize their relationships with them in such a way as to define the outsider as an inferior other. The Gypsies work together in every aspect of their effort to "extract" a living from the outsiders.
Every aspect of the Gypsies' life is controlled by a set of mores and customs that are judged by the group and, especially by the elders, as to whether they are being properly conformed to. They have a leadersh...