HST296A: Reading Notes, 2-Feb-2005 Dinkin, Robert J.
Meetinghouse in Early Massachusetts," in Robert Blair St.
George, Life in America. "Dinkin draws on church records and
town histories as he explores an aspect of meetinghouse design
that was crucial to the reflexive representation of local social
structure: 'seating' the congregation. . .[Seating] made the act
of attending worship an event that drew attention to and
legitimized a specific set of power relations in local society.
. .New England society was always defferentaial" yet the basis
of that deference changed over time from 'age, estate, and
qualifications to amount of wealth. (p. 407) Interesting:
sometimes complaints were not simply to get a better seat but to
get one "not too honorable for me" (p. 413) Difficulties in
assigning seats,changes in construction (movement to pews),
raising money for building by auctioning pews, and possibly the
Revolution contributed to a disbanding of this practice in older
towns, while some newer towns just began ado