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I've come to see this as symptom of increased prosperity. When money was tight, people were what provided comfort. Everyone got together to prepare and celebra

I've come to see this as symptom of increased prosperity. When money was tight, people were what provided comfort. Everyone got together to prepare and celebrate. Now that families can afford to pay someone else to do it, we are basically left with a lunch/dinner and some time talking, which doesn't feel far off from old school aristocratic galas. There is little emotional investment beyond 'maintaining the network' and the same 1 hr drives start looking like barriers. I always preferred small (3-8) groups for company so the phenomenon has hit me slightly less severely, as it is easier to get small group together and emotionally involved, but bigger family gatherings are definitively getting rarer.

sylens 4y ago
This is an interesting view on it that I hadn't previously considered. But you're right - whereas before a lot of members of the family would prepare food separately and bring it, now there is a lot of use of catering/prepared food for one-off entrees
topkai22 4y ago
ACOUP’s series on subsistence farming had a great exploration of why for most of human history investing in social relationships was an import survival strategy: https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-farmers/ https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they... It’s not just that when times were tight people provided comfort, it could quite literally mean the difference between survival or not to have built the bonds of social capital across households, including within the extended family/tribe.
dr-detroit 4y ago