Strangers always disrupted daily routines in small communities

Evidence

The arrival of a stranger or group of strangers in these little enclaves of personal knowing was (and in some parts of the world still is) a truly remarkable and momentous event. Just how remarkable and how momentous depended on numerous related factors: the degree of the group’s isolation, past experience with such events, the extent to which the stranger’s appearance differed from that of the receiving group, the group’s social organization and belief system, and so forth. But never were such appearances merely routine. They always occasioned the interruption, to some degree, of everyday activities. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 40

Categorization

• XREF: Contrast with the modern urban normalization of strangers (the reader’s flâneur theme): the stranger goes from event to ambient background condition.