The Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag are the holders of the land that includes Boston and Brook Farm. Archaeological evidence shows that Massachusett have lived on the now Brook Farm land for at least 5,000 years.
From the 1600s through 1900s the land that would become Brook Farm was a 170-acre farm with a farmhouse near Baker Street. It was owned by the Ward and later Richards families.
Massachusett Tribal life was matriarchal. Women of the tribe trapped small game, gathered shellfish, wild grains, greens and herbs for food and medicine. The women of the tribe owned and tended the planting fields, and preserved the harvests. The children were employed to keep the birds away from the planted fields. The women also built and owned the wetus (summer huts) and winter long houses that the tribal members lived in.
What we have learned; the Massachusett Tribe nailed communal living for several thousand years, whereas a bunch of European transcendentalist utopians couldn't make that last past 6 years.
The farmer's co-op I'm part of has been running along for nigh on 90 years now, I'm sure longer running ones exist about the world.
menggg•1h ago
The simulation reproduced documented outcomes: Hawthorne leaves on schedule (Round 11 vs historical Nov 1842), intellectuals refuse to farm, the school is the only reliable income, the founder's satisfaction hits 0.
Then I ran counterfactuals and remove one person at a time, rerun history: - Remove the skeptic (Hawthorne): happiest community, 3x satisfaction - Remove the teacher (Sophia): only run that goes bankrupt - Remove the founder (Ripley): nobody notices, community reorganizes - Double the food: exact same farming rate, failure just delayed And also doubling resources doesn't change behavior.
Happy to answer questions about the simulation design. The next experiment I'm excited about: can we find a configuration of people that actually survives?