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13 Things 2008
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
Now that you've returned to your chair, try and feel the way in which the pieces of the chair affect your back.
If you've just sat down, you're probably near something like a 90° angle.
Sitting upright against the chair puts both forward (from the chair's back) and downward (from gravity) pressure on your spine. Over the course of this sentence or paragraph or class, you may have noticed yourself sliding downwards and forwards until your spine is curved into the chair, due to these two pressures. That's only comfortable for a limited amount of time, and it's bad for your back, so most of us will usually straighten up at some point and try to sit upright without the aid of the chair back. And yet even this is difficult to maintain for too long, for some of the same reasons that sitting in seiza is so difficult.