Preindustrial cities staged public performance and ceremony far more often than modern ones

Evidence

In cities as diverse in time and place as eighth century Damascus and sixteenth century London, actors, storytellers, musicians, and street singers were ever-present, giving their performances whenever and wherever they could collect a crowd. 8 Public pageantry and ceremonials were frequent, far more frequent than in the modern city and far less likely to be spatially restricted or confined. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 204

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Simmel/Lofland thread: preindustrial public space was saturated with staged performance, whereas the modern blasé observer must manufacture meaning — the contrast between spectacle-saturated and spectacle-impoverished public realms.