1. At a distributed database system including one or more processors and system memory, the distributed database system also including a plurality of database partitions in a federation, the federation configured to store a plurality of rows of data, each row of data identified by a federation key value, such that the federation stores data for a set of federation key values, each of the plurality of database partitions configured to physically store any rows of data having a federation key value within a specified portion of federation key values in the set, a method for scoping the context used to access a database partition, the method comprising: an act of receiving a context to use when performing database access operations within the distributed database system, the context identifying a specified relevant portion of the federation; an act of receiving a database access operation that is associated with the context; and an act of modifying the semantics of the database access operation in accordance with the associated context to direct application of the database access operation to the specified relevant portion of the federation.