Chair ‘Mystique’
A.C. Mandal
For thousands of years the chair has mainly had a ritual and religious importance, and has therefore been surrounded by much mystique.
But from being the symbol of a ruler’s power it has developed within the last few centuries into one of our most important tools, and is the basis of much of our daily work.
Unfortunately, the chair has never really shaken off its connections with its princely past. Since with the high tempo of modern work we cannot permit ourselves the same relaxed position of rulers, we have instead made enormous efforts to try to teach people to sit in the same way that the Pharaohs sat. These efforts have been made, however, without any sort of explanation why this should be better than the way we naturally sit.
The conviction is presumably based on religious, moral, disciplinary and aesthetic criteria, but there is remarkably little scientific basis for it.
Excerpt from:
The Seated Man: Homo Sedens, Dafnia Publications, 1985, p. 88