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13 Things 2009

13 Things 2008


Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

Search Brown

 

 

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]

Why don't the Japanese use chairs?

Why didn't the Japanese use chairs?

Why wouldn't the Japanese use chairs?

Why would any society not use chairs?

However much I am aware of the limitations and the silliness of such questions, I must admit that I am initially motivated by the feeling that these questions for which there should be answers. Reasons.

And certainly there are good reasons why the Japanese would choose not to use chairs in particular periods, and why they would later choose to start using them. There are influences from China and theories of path-dependence that could contribute to the dominance of floor-sitting. Floor-sitting may, as Cranz suggests, be healthier than chair-sitting. In that case we might inquire as to why we persist in using chairs, or why the Japanese started doing so. The answers to such questions are surely interesting. But with the present line of inquiry in mind, we may have found a better question.