America has incorporated a long history of people choosing to embrace alternative communal societies, from the initial vision of Pilgrims through later groups, including the Shakers, the Oneida communities, Mormons and socialists. This heritage was revitalized in the 1960s by youths using communal settings as support to escape commercialism and other American values. Some were religious, with a special fascination with Eastern religion. Others, both ephemeral and longer-enduring, were defined by lifestyles, new values of gender and sexuality, “nature” and simplicity or vague countercultural ideologies.