Collective Effervescence: Research About the Counterculture

Collective effervescence is a term in anthropology to defines what happens in a group high, when people are in celebration together. It’s an important part of the human experience. I think we need more of it.

“Everyone was in a groove,” is how one of my participants describe the feeling of people dropping their differences and joining together for music and dance.

This as a collective liminal experience. Anthropology says this matters because it’s an essential aspect of healthy community life. A liminal experience occurs in a time outside of time. Think about a great party when everyone’s happy, an equally good time being had by all.

I grew up in counterculture family on a small farm in Northern California. In the town my family moved to in 1970, the old-timer residents felt their values being threatened by the incoming back-to-the-landers. Conflict arose. It could be obnoxious, mean-spirited, and even hilarious.

For the town and community at the heart of this ethnography, wildfire and county mandates created ways for divided people to find common ground.

Ethnographies describe the culture and customs of a specific group of people. This ethnography explores how a rural community divided by old-timers and back-to-the-landers found a sustainable peace that respects their differences.

Collective Effervescence: A Back-to-the-Land Ethnography is a series of articles drawing from my research about the American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s and thesis for my MA in anthropology. Each post is a fresh re-write from my ethnography, add photos, and links for about a 5 - 7 minute read.

This study was motivated by the inaccurate narrative about the counterculture movement. Interviewing those who identified as hippies during the 1960s and 70s, it was remarkable how many were embarrassed about this period of their life. “I’m surprised you admit to being a hippie,” a woman said. “Well, I was a kid. And I loved it.” I admire and appreciate the young adults who created a counterculture, forging a brave new world.

I encourage you to start reading from Chapter 1 as each builds upon the previous post. It concludes with Chapter 7. This study is about the culture that created the counterculture, why the movement began, how it evolved. I hope you will enjoy learning more about the counterculture from someone who was raised then and there, with no shame.

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