ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the formation of communal groups. Formation of a communal group initially depends on the gathering together of a group of people committed to that enterprise. For a new association of people to come together in a communal arrangement of any scope beyond the simple cooperative sharing of living facilities, a previously nonexistent entity, the group, must be invoked as real. One member of a communal group may find another’s actions at variance with his or her own expectations and talk about it at the time or bring it up elsewhere. Even when a group myth is both highly specific and relevant to the immediate tasks of group life, the application of myth to situation is seldom straightforward. The successful development of a group way of life hinges on the resolution of tensions between a myth and the diverse problematic concerns of initial collective life.
