As I understand it, when we plan, design and build our homes in the Self Reliance communities, we will work with groups of 10 (families). Each group of 10 with be grouped with 4 other groups (5 groups of 10). Then there will be 5 groups of 50 to comprise the whole community.
I was pondering what we call the groups within this structure.
A Family is the smallest unit – essentially a household or in our case one share holder.
A group of 10 shareholders could be considered a CLAN – which is a group within a Tribe (this has some Book of Mormon connotations).
A group of 5 clans would be considered a TRIBE.
A group of tribes would be considered a PEOPLE.
Other terminolgy could be
Family – Hamlet – Village – Town
or
Family – District – Shire – Town/City
What do you think?
That is a really good question. My personal preference is District within the community. Shire originated with a 1,000 families. A ward is already in use. So, I stand by my preference “District.”
The 5 groups of 10 or the group of 50 would be a District. The groups of 10 originate with the Path Series sponsored by the Academy of Self-Reliance Focus groups. For after construction and when life starts to settle down into an everyday rhythm, there has been some discussion that smaller social groups of friends will naturally occur through school & or continuing educational groups, church sponsored groups, special interest groups and the list goes on. Administratively the groups of 50, which could even be called a council of 50 was the smallest considered. With that being said, there is no reason for not carrying on the discussion and determine if there is a need for smaller groups to be organized. The questions that I would ask; “What is wanted and why? How would it be organized and maintained? Where would the divisions be made and when would it take place?” Just thinking outloud.