Good Fences Make Good Neighbours or does it?

The Poem by Robert Frost, Mending Fences comes to mind as I survey the various types of fences seen in residential areas on the fringes of the urban centre of San Fernando.  Are our fences a result of our historical past - a need to define what is ours that was lacking during colonial time? Are the fences a cultural symbol transmitted during acculturation? or Has more modern activities necesitated the need of fences on the urban edge? Darlene-Dee Smith and Susan Hardwick in 1982 published a paper entitled " A Geographical Analysis of Residential Front Year Fences in the Sacrament Urban Region" 

Smith and Hardwick noted that fences had different meanings for different people but underlined the fact that these fences serve important social and psychological functions. 
* Are our fences a status symbol as wrought iron fences once was?
* Do our fences give a feeling of security and privacy to the small lot assigned to us by urban planners? or
* Do our fences just allow us to be good neighbours?