A chair's function is not just to provide a place to sit; it is to provide a medium for self-expression. Chairs are about status, for example. Or signalling something about oneself. That's why the words chair, seat and bench have found themselves used to describe high status professions, from academ
“For millions of men and women, the church has been the hospital for the soul, the school for the mind and the safe depository for moral ideas.”