With Avedon, facial expression marks the ultimate incommunicado of solitude. Otherwise, it would be easy to overlook small, telling details. For instance, the glasses that the women wear in many of the photographs have special significance for a group that bans jewelry. Glasses become a shy sort of sumptuary object. The control over adornment extends to money, too.
Money is really to get some small thing.
Birthday cards, for instance, are really popular. They are worried about individuals getting too independent in the community. They don't even want pets, because they are afraid pets will make the children competitive. Hutterite children used to be named Sarah, David, and Joseph, Wilson writes. She searches for ways to describe how completely out of the mainstream the Hutterites are, and comes up with a comparison that seems entirely apt.