Longhair -
Actually, a lot of the puritan ideas on buttons and shape of toilet seat are to do with primitive magical beliefs, which continued even after their significance was forgotten.
Same in medicine - during the great yellow fever plague in New Orleans in the 1830s (?) cannon were fired from rooftops thinking this would disperse the miasma spreading the disease: actually it was a hang over from the days when it was thought that loud noises would scare away the demons making people sick.
Buttons are forbidden, because of what might come to mind when pushing a hard thing into a hole. I am mystified on why round toilet seats are forbidden, but the law against it is still on the statute books in Mass.
See J G Frazer "The Golden Bough".
HB