Between Floors and Chairs: The changing role of seats in the Indonesian Archipelago

Abstract

Sitting positions can reveal complex modes of spatial interaction, especially in multi-cultural settings where appropriate modes vary. In the Indonesian archipelago today, lesehan (floor-sitting) and chair-sitting occur at different situations. Tracing their history through longue durée approach reveals much intricacy in their shifting socio-cultural roles. Everyday sitting was for a long time synonymous with lesehan, which was supported by diverse sitting implements such as mats, cushions, and whole structures. Elevated seats are linked with the ancient notion of status-enhancing thrones, which were augmented by cultural layering from Hindu-Buddhist then Islamic influences. Colonial chairs represent the gradual domestication of elevated seating in the archipelago, although existing notions of exclusivity were appropriated and their use were carefully controlled by colonial socio-political norms to exclude most everyday Indonesians. It was through the critique of these norms by 20^th century nationalists that chair-sitting became democratized as an everyday alternative to lesehan.