Urban strangers who cannot claim territory instead occupy public space through prop-management rituals

Evidence

Mrs. B. of our church parish always came to Mass with an incredible number of small items in her possession. We seemed always to be seated in the pew just behind her so that before services began we had a very clear view of her activity. Having entered the pew, she first knelt for a few minutes in prayer, then sat back, opened her purse and began pulling out various items. First came the missal which she looked over carefully, opened and marked for the day’s services, and then laid to one side. Next came her rosary, carefully taken from its tiny box· and placed in a convenient pocket for later use. Then the collection envelope was drawn forth, examined closely and finally placed between the pages of the missal. If it were a warm day, she would remove her coat, taking great care to fold it just so and place it next to her. Her hat needed rearranging quite often too, and she spent quite a bit of time removing and replacing pins. She invariably went to the altar to light a candle, necessitating an inspection of her change purse arid often a bit of housekeeping in the handbag itself. When she had lit the candle and returned to her pew, she seemed always to find that things had been disarranged or were not as propitiously placed as she might wish, and the whole process would begin again. It was said in our parish that Mass could not begin until Mrs. B. had finished building her nest. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 879

Categorization

• SEED: The church ‘nester’ portrait is a vivid case study in how people without legitimate territorial claim use curated objects to mark space — an essay angle connecting everyday nest-building to broader theories of claiming space without property rights.