And when the intermediary returns with a favorable response, quite often a new structural re-alignment has been accomplished. Useful information about others, is obtained in contexts that most often are not neutral. New bits of information are continually added to a body of knowledge, a dossier, that a person has for each of man of his fellow townsmen. Information about oneself that becomes a topic of general gossip has escaped one's control. It might be used in ways that are damaging to one's reputation.
Complete isolation is, of course, impossible, nor is it desirable.
Houses are oriented inward. The living room in the larger homes is seldom lived in, is standardized in its appointments in order to give away little information, and is well spruced up at all times in order to convey positive impressions. In public, conventions are designed for personal privacy. Children, are not subject in the same way as adults to conventions that ensure privacy, and they can also be used to breach the walls of secrecy. Privacy and secrecy, which are so important in small communities, provide the basis for the strategic use of children .