Utopia: Book 2: Of Their Traffic Summary & Analysis

Hythloday now turns to how Utopians interact with one another. Cities consist of families, mostly made up of blood relatives. Wives leave their own families to live with their husbands, but men stay in the families they’re born into, governed by the oldest capable man. No family may have fewer than ten members or more than sixteen (not counting their children), and no city may have more than 6,000 families in it.

If a family becomes too large, its excess members are moved into smaller families, and if a city becomes too large, its excess members are moved into smaller cities. If the population of the island itself becomes too large, the excess members relocate to a nearby land where there is much waste and they found a town, assimilating the natives there if possible, but driving them out and warring with them if not. The Utopians maintain that the most just cause of war is to liberate ground that people would otherwise idly occupy. If a city in Utopia proper becomes too small, members of these Utopian towns abroad are moved into it.

Now for the interactions of the Utopians. The oldest capable man rules the family. Wives care for their husbands, and children for their parents. Each city is divided into equal quarters, and at the center of each is a marketplace. From here the fathers of the families fetch what their households require for free. No one in Utopia asks for more than they need; fear of lack and pride are the causes of greed, but neither exists in Utopia.

Around the markets are places to get food: herbs, fruit, bread, fish, the meat of four-legged animals, and fowl. Animals are killed, cleaned, and butchered outside of town by bondmen (slaves), because free citizens are not allowed to do so. The Utopians believe that mercy decays in people who regularly kill. Also, nothing filthy or unclean is brought into the city, and this prevents pestilence and disease. Along every street are great halls for meeting and eating. The Philarchs live in these, along with the thirty families appointed to them. The stewards of every hall come into the food markets to fetch however much meat is necessary.

Around each city there are four big, well-supplied, diligently attended hospitals, so big they can comfortably accommodate any number of patients without the risk of spreading disease. The physicians are intelligent and skilled. No person is forced to go to the hospital, but in the case of illness most people prefer the hospital to their own beds.

After the sick receive the food their physicians have prescribed, the best food in the city is divided up, first among the magistrates, priests, ambassadors, and (the very rare) strangers, then among the rest of the citizens. No one is prohibited from fetching more food out of the market and bringing it to his own house. People can dine at home instead of in the halls, but no one willingly does, because it is a point of small honesty to dine among one’s fellow citizens, and also because the food in the halls is better than what one could prepare at home.

In the halls, the hardest, most drudging labor is done by bondmen. Women from every family prepare and serve the meals. Men sit against the wall opposite women at the table (four people to a table), which makes it easy for women to rise, as often happens when they’re pregnant, and go to the nursery.

The nurses sit in a parlor with the babies they’re nursing, and they’re provided with fire, clean water, and cradles. Every mother nurses her own child unless she is prevented by sickness. In such a case, the wives of the Philarchs quickly provide a nurse. Children under the age of five also sit with the nurses at meals. All the other children under the age of marriage, boys and girls, serve at the tables or, if they’re not strong enough to serve, stand silently by. These children eat what’s given to them. There are no other formalities at mealtime among the Utopians.

The Philarch and his wife sit—with two of the eldest next to them, or the priest and his wife—at the center of the high table so that everyone in the hall can see them. The young sit interspersed among their elders at meals rather than off by themselves so that they cannot behave and speak viciously, and elders do not talk tediously but encourage young people to prove their wit and virtuous disposition in conversation.

The Utopians begin every meal with a reading of something good, virtuous, and short. Lunch is short, but dinner is long, and no dinner passes without music being played. Incense, spices, and perfumes are burned during meals, and sweet ointments and waters are sprinkled about. The Utopians believe that no pleasure should be forbidden if no harm comes of it. In the country, in contrast, people who dwell far from their neighbors do eat in their own houses.