American readers of a certain age will no doubt have come across this phenomenon at the time of the ‘flower children’, and it still may be possible to find it in enclaves of 1960s sub-culture, or among New Age holdouts.
Taken from “Denial Does Not Make The Haredi Body Go Away Ethnography of a Disappearing (?) Jewish Phenomenon”, By Prof. Gideon Aran
I am referring to a low seated position – not on a chair – which has several versions, such as crouching down on your heels, with bent limbs drawn up closely beneath the body, or a kind of relaxed semi-lotus position, resting entirely on your backside with legs crossed in front. In all its versions, this is a posture in which the body’s center of gravity is close to the ground, or even in contact with it.The sitting posture described here commonly expresses an unmediated relationship between a person and his body and his place. Continue reading
