Seating as Material Culture

Seating as Material Culture explores the evolution of seating practices as a lens for understanding three millennia of sociopolitical, cultural, and aesthetic transformations. Spanning from ancient Elamite ritual foundations (3000 BCE) to the Qājār era (1789–1925), this richly illustrated study examines furniture not merely as functional objects but as material texts inscribed with cultural and political meaning.The book draws on archaeological artefacts, historical visual materials, museum collections, and critical design theory to uncover how seating tools have contributed to the (re)design of authority. It examines seating as a medium of power, hierarchy, and identity, from courtly rituals and spiritual authority to evolving notions of comfort and modernity. The analysis is informed by Michel Foucault’s technologies of power, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, and Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad, offering a multi-layered reading of seating as a tool that choreographs bodies and materializes abstract hierarchies. Alongside these theoretical perspectives, the study employs semiotic interpretation and iconographic analysis to examine how seating objects create meaning throughout different historical periods. Through this interdisciplinary lens, the book reveals how elevation, posture, and spatial arrangement embody social hierarchy, intimacy, and ideological transformation.This book is ideal for scholars and students of design history, material culture, Southwest Asian studies, and visual anthropology. It contributes to global design discourses by situating Iranian material traditions within broader debates about modernity, identity, and coloniality. Readers will benefit from its innovative approach to understanding furniture as a cultural text and historical agent, as well as its insights into the enduring and transformative nature of Iranian seating practices across centuries.

Serveh Naghshbandi is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, and musician whose work explores the relationships between culture, place, and the transmission of knowledge. Based in Naarm/Melbourne, she draws on decolonial and participatory approaches to examine how people create meaning through material, sonic, and social worlds. Trained in design and later in the social sciences, she has conducted research spanning design studies, ethnomusicology, and education. Seating as Material Culture brings together more than twenty years of engagement with Iranian history, visual culture, and design.