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28°44′04″N110°25′10″W / 28.73444°N 110.41944°W /28.73444; -110.41944
Los Horcones is anintentional community located about 40 miles fromHermosillo,Mexico[1] which has been described by members "as the only trueWalden Two community in existence".[2] The members of Los Horcones use techniques based on behavioral science toshape their own and each other's behaviors. They use those behavior-shaping techniques in politically coordinated ways and they do so in order to continuously improve themselves and their culture. They are striving to build a culture "based on cooperation, sharing, non-violence, equality and ecological sustainability".[3]
Experimentalism andcontinuous improvement are two of the most important doctrines of a Walden Two community.Burrhus Frederic Skinner, author of the novelWalden Two, expressed this in the following way. He wrote:
"Comunidad de los Horcones"
is the name of thecorporation that owns and operates thecommunity known as
Los Horcones.In English, Comunidad de los Horcones means "community of the bifurcated wooden pillars".
A wooden pillar that divides into two branches can be described as being "bifurcated". A bifurcated pillar has a shape similar to the capital letterY.
At Los Horcones, bifurcated pillars are sometimes used to support a roof that protects a building's patio.
— "The main thing is, we encourage our people to view every habit and custom with an eye to possible improvement. A constantly experimental attitude toward everything—that's all we need. Solutions to problems of every sort follow almost miraculously."Walden Two, page 25
The members of Los Horcones refer to their community as a cultural laboratory[4] and they regard themselves as cultural engineers. They will readily adopt new cultural behaviors when experimental evidence indicates that doing so will improve their lives. As a result of their cultural engineering efforts, they are unlikely to suffer fromcultural lag.
Los Horcones is listed in theCommunities Directory of theFellowship for Intentional Community.[5]
Los Horcones can also be regarded as anexperimental community.[6][7] When the members of Los Horcones encounter problems they design and conduct experiments to test possible solutions to their problems.[citation needed] Depending on the result of an experiment, they may collectively resolve to make an experimental behavior into a community-approved component of their behavioral culture. In this way, the Los Horconans try to exercise control over the evolution of their culture.
Despite being sometimes referred to as an "utopian vision",[8] a Walden Two community does not include claims of perfection. An experimental community is an attempt to thrive through seeing problems are seen as opportunities for experimentation.[citation needed] According to its proponents, an experimental community can be thought of as aeutopia (a good place) in which there is always room for experimentation and improvement.[citation needed]
The Behavior of Organisms,B. F. Skinner's first book, was published in 1938.[9] The research strategy that Dr. Skinner presented in that book was widely adopted and grew into a school of psychology named theexperimental analysis of behavior. That school is today known asBehavior Analysis.
As Behavior Analysis grew larger, a growing number of scholars began to believe that Behavior Analysis had outgrown its place inPsychology and that it was time to establish a separate discipline. Makram Khalil Samaan gave expression to this belief in 1973 when he wrote, "It is time now for the scientific analysis of behavior to call for its own scientific discipline. It is contradictory to its function, objective, methods and content to stay within the realm of psychology." Mr. Samaan suggested that the scientific analysis of behavior become a separate scientific discipline named "behaviorology".[10]
In 1974 the Los Horconans began using the term "behaviorology" to refer to "the natural science of behavior".[11] Their summary of behaviorology reads as follows: "Behaviorology encompasses basic research, applied research and philosophy. Basic research includes (a) descriptive analysis of behavior (behaviography), (b) experimental analysis of behavior (experimental behaviorology), and (c) a theoretical or conceptual analysis of behavior (theoretical behaviorology). Applied research refers to behavior-analytic applications of the experimental analysis of behavior to the prevention and solution of social problems. As such, it includes (a) applied research in the form of experimental analysis oriented towards finding solutions to social problems and (b) behavioral technology, in the form of behavior-analytic procedures alone. The philosophy of behaviorology is that of behaviorism, which includes both, philosophical (or metatheoretical) assumptions and the philosophical implications of data obtained by the experimental analysis of behavior and its applications."[12]
The International Behaviorology Association (TIBA) was founded in 1987. TIBA's purpose statement reads, in part, "TIBA is a professional organization dedicated to representing and developing the philosophical, analytical, experimental, and technological components of the discipline of behaviorology, the comprehensive natural science of the functional relations of behavior including determinants from the environment, both socio-cultural and non-cultural, as well as determinants from the biological history of the species".[13]
In August 1988 three Los Horconans attended the first TIBA convention, which was held atClarkson University in Potsdam, New York.[14]The second TIBA convention was held at Los Horcones in January 1990.[15] To accommodate that convention, the Los Horconans built a convention hall and several residential buildings.
TIBA subsequently changed its name and is today known as the International Society for Behaviorology (ISB). The ISB describes itself as "an organization of behavioral materialists who hold that: (a) evolution from nonhuman to human behavior is a continuous physical, biological, and behaviorological process; (b) contingencies evoke, shape, and maintain behavior and its processes with no implied or inferred agency playing a causal role".[16] The ISB's twenty-first annual convention was held in Newport Beach, California. That convention opened on March 18, 2009, and closed 2 days later on March 20, after a "Memorial Dinner" that celebrated the birth ofB. F. Skinner on March 20, 1904.[17]
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From a legal perspective, Los Horcones is a corporation. The corporation's full name is Comunidad de los Horcones. It was organized in 1973 and it operates under the laws of the state ofSonora, one of the thirty-one states that together make up theUnited Mexican States. Los Horcones is a particular type of corporation: it is aproducer cooperative.
The corporation owns a parcel of land that contains approximately 260 acres (110 hectares). That parcel is approximately 1,312 feet (400 meters) abovesea level. The members of Los Horcones live in buildings which are located on that parcel. Most of those buildings are grouped together on the southern half of the parcel (see aerial photograph).[18] The parcel is bounded on its northern border by Mexican Federal Highway 16 (Carretera Federal 16). The drive fromHermosillo, capital of the State of Sonora, takes about 45 minutes.
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