The census data provided in this excerpt caused me to think about the United States divided into regions, and how "households" across our country vary in terms of structure. Are their regional associations or region-specific household structures in the United States?
Although the United States is one country while Europe is many, the geographical area of the United States is much larger than any single European country (sans Russia). However, I feel like the cultural impacts upon families, households, and "housefuls" in Europe are much stronger than here in USA. This leads me to question, is our country too young to contain households as kin groups as well as work groups? Is the "work group" designation of a household something that predates households of the United States, or something that has simply been phased out or occurs in very small proportion due to the "melting pot" status of our country, as well as the preference for big business and giant agricultural endeavors? Does our affinity for Big Business limit the kin-group/work-group structure in a way that is not exemplified in Europe?
Again, this reading makes me question if "household" truly has one universal meaning, or if it is something different in every culture, region, etc. If this is so, is it truly a valid concept to use when describing and comparing family or residential units?
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