Thanks Tara, this resonated on so many levels, but I'll pick just one.
I'm working on a series of posts on land ownership and use, particularly in farming. My ancestors in Scotland in the 1600s lived in a township, a collection of houses and families with small strips of land assigned to them in rotation, and common land for grazing. After the enclosures and clearances, they became crofters with fixed tenancies and eventually dispersed to the colonies and the cities, while the land came into the hands of a few rich families as family farms. Meanwhile, on these shores, promotion of homesteading established the family farm and the nuclear family as baselines.
The family farm and the nuclear family are joined at the hip. Both are assumed realities in need of reinvention.
Thanks Tara, this resonated on so many levels, but I'll pick just one.
I'm working on a series of posts on land ownership and use, particularly in farming. My ancestors in Scotland in the 1600s lived in a township, a collection of houses and families with small strips of land assigned to them in rotation, and common land for grazing. After the enclosures and clearances, they became crofters with fixed tenancies and eventually dispersed to the colonies and the cities, while the land came into the hands of a few rich families as family farms. Meanwhile, on these shores, promotion of homesteading established the family farm and the nuclear family as baselines.
The family farm and the nuclear family are joined at the hip. Both are assumed realities in need of reinvention.