Preindustrial city streets fused commerce, schooling, and bargaining in crowded public space

Evidence

Picture yourself then, a modern urban human, dropped by means of a time machine, in the midst of some mythical composite preindustrial city. You are struck, first of all, by the sheer amount of activity there. Merchants, operating out of little cubbyholes, have spread their wares · in the street. Next to them, a school of some type appears to be in session and you wonder how the students can concentrate. A wandering vendor is coming toward you, shouting out the wonders of his wares, and out of the hubbub of the street noises, you can just make out the shouts of other wandering vendors moving through the other streets. A man stops the vendor and they begin haggling over the price of an item. Then you notice that the more immobile merchants are also engaged in such haggling, some of it of long duration. Here and there, such an encounter has drawn a crowd and bystanders have involved themselves in the interaction. Everyone is shouting, with many insults passing back and forth. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 159

Categorization

• XREF: The cacophony and involvement of bystanders parallel the reader’s soundscape material — lo-fi vs hi-fi aural worlds from Schafer, and Cole’s noise-as-burden contrast.