ABSTRACT

Deke Jones is old by communal standards. Deke was grizzled and mystical, his leathery head preoccupied with the mysteries of nature and primitive survival in it. He was not merely a theoretical gardener; he was a pastoral seeker as well. Counterculture pastoralism has deep roots in American history. The pastoral myth—the vision of a simple and self-sufficient rural life in harmony with nature—connects the rural communards of the counterculture with the suburbanites of the 1950s and with the more distant American past. The first element of the pastoral myth among communards is the celebration of self-sufficiency and survival. "Survival" for rural communards conveys the pride they take in the development of the requisite skills and techniques that enable them to overcome such real threats to their collective continuity. With respect to the relationship between its pastoral ideals and the day-to-day circumstances it must face, The Ranch has done its ideological work relatively well.