Hanson - Bao

The Hanson article on agricultural egalitarianism brings up some of the topics we have recently been discussing in class. The parallels to our current system of organizing and defining the census are quite intriguing. For instance, the idea of a farming community is similar to what we would consider a "household" in census definitions. However, in terms of actual everyday life and living, it seems almost as though the agrarian economy of the Ancient Greek system is much more idealistic and has ceased to be the normal expected way of living. It is as though the current household in modern society has a much more decentralized manner of operation about it - that the functions and expectations of those belonging to the household have changed with industrialization and modernization. However, I think it might be difficult to really draw conclusions on the sense of community and obligation within modern households because of the large variety of culture and tradition, as well as the difference in living domain (urban, suburban, rural) within just our country alone. For those who do not farm, which is a large portion of the population, what is it that ties them to their family? Or is the growing trend that these individuals no longer feel obligated? A follow up question to this train of thought would then be how does one obtain a sense of community and belonging in their social networks? There may be some phenomena about the household - whether it be the physical aspect of the living structure or the social side of receiving/reciprocating - that is dictating how we perceive our ties to our families and how we live under those constructs.