LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 03 - Three Is Company

[Aiwendil]

I guess my point is that I see very specific cultural interactions going on here, interactions which might well work towards developing character, but which might not fit well with a heroic or mythic understanding of the relationships between retainers and lords.

But, as you mentioned earlier I believe, the Shire is not really very mythic. It's certainly not feudal. It's actually peculiarly modern (and indeed bourgeois) with its kettles and clocks and whatnot. Frodo is not a lord and Sam is not a vassal. I think that their class-relationship is very appropriate for the Shire. Obviously it's a completely different sort of cultural interaction than what you'd find in Rohan or Gondor; but then, why should it not be?