Fortes-Meyer- Bonhomme

Woolgars peice on mediveval English households is interesting, both in method and findings. This reading to me, although dense with extensive facts about the families, brought up an interesting question of methodological limit in householding studies. Knowing what we do now about the limitations of the census in representing our society today, it is intereting to think about the limitations that undoubtedly occur in Woolgar's peice. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that the methodology is not limited per se, but rather that his sources are what provide the limitation. As we know, the census has a very specific purpose and that is to gain an accurate representation of communities in order to be able to provide services to them accordingly. Naturally, when a source such as the census is extrapolated and used in an anhropological context to understand kinship and household dynamics and processes, the findings are also limited. It is imperative to ask what the function of the data that Woolgar uses were? Why were these collected? These questions are important to ask because they dictate who is included and who isn't, which is just as important in any anthropological attempt to analyse the household.
Woolgar does acknowledge the integrety of the study of 'household antiquities' in that data has been very carefully recorded, throughout the history of this feild of study. However, the question of the purpose of the data is still imperative when analyzing the findings.