Read the textbook passage below and answer the following question.
1Americans have long believed in the attainability of a just social and political order. 2But at no time
was the spirit of a just society stronger than during the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s, when literally
hundreds of utopian communities were created. 3Shaker communities were one of the earliest utopian
"experiments." 4Aspiring to live like the early Christians, Shakers adopted communal ownership of
property and a way of life emphasizing simplicity. 5Dress was kept simple and uniform; architecture and
furniture were devoid of ornament. 6Robert Owen's experimental community at New Harmony
presented a striking contrast to the Shaker colonies. 7Owen sought to establish common ownership of
property and abolish religion. 8At New Harmony the marriage ceremony was reduced to a single
sentence, and children were raised outside of their natural parents' homes. 9Another utopian
experiment was perhaps the most notorious and successful-John Humphrey Noyes's Oneida
Community. 10Noyes established perfectionist communities that practiced communal ownership of
property and "complex marriage." 11Complex marriage meant that every member of the community
was married to every member of the opposite sex. 12The community also conducted experiments in
eugenics-the selective control of mating in order to improve the hereditary qualities of children.
A transition that introduces one of the major details of the paragraph is