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Originally Posted by Ibri
I find it interesting that the tracing of family history is a common interest among the "lowly" Hobbits and the "high" Numenoreans, particularly since it seems a more wholesome pursuit among the Hobbits. The Men of Gondor seem to have made it into something not exactly twisted, but also not quite healthy.
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With the Numenorean aspect, and especially during the third age it makes sense why those of nobility living in or outside of Gondor would be concerned so much with bloodlines. Faramir gives us an example when he reflects to Frodo about his brother asking how long it would take for their father (or himself) to become a king if a king didn't return, and Denethor replies, "Few years, maybe, in other places of less royalty … In Gondor ten thousand years would not suffice." Being in such a hotseat as the stewardship could give some governing reason why they would be choosey over whom they married.
Hobbits, except for a few (sackville-baggins par example), seem to use it as a more involved method of cultural and heritage celebration. There doesn't seem to be so much pressure put on preservation as merely enjoying your family, or less than favourably get something out of them (Bilbo's silver spoons incident). In a way it gives them a strength that other societies in middle earth might lack, such as strength in relation and greater connections of kinship. Frodo's 'taking in' by the Brandywine branch and Bilbo's adoption are a few examples of this.
Some members of my mom's family have the 'Numenorean view', but as for my immediate family and my dad's family we're related to far too many people from anywhere and everywhere that its kind of useless trying to gain 'acceptance' to any long lost nobility. Plus it's all rather silly.
So, I guess I have more of the hobbit view on things, it's kind of nice to find out every few years or so who else you're related to, but I'm more into recognizing even 'fictive kinship' than someone who is rather distant and I probably never will know.
(Fictive kinship is where, for example using m'self, your mother's best friends might be called and treated as 'auntie' or 'uncle', or you have a best friend for ages and they become your 'sister' and a 'daughter' to your family and vice versa).
~ Ka