Also, many peasants didn’t even use bath houses they bathed in their home with more effort by heating up basins of water.
But excessive bathing wasn’t really talking about bathing but going to public bath houses to meet and to … other people.
If you read the article/post, it goes on to say that in later centuries, some medical professionals misinformed the public telling them not to bathe with warm water because the ‘pores would open and let too much bacteria etc in.’ I am thankful they eventually reconsidered.
Sorry if memes are frowned upon, but it’s a relevant one.
The Old Testament says you need to wash your hands.
The New Testament says Jesus didn’t bother.
🤷
I see what you did there.
A lot of the myths about medieval people were fabricated during the enlightenment and industrial eras to pump up the idea that modern people were so much better than ye olde boorish savages. Much of it is complete BS. People weren’t nearly as backwards and primitive as we’ve been led to believe.
They were hella superstitious, though.
It’s a major reason for sure. Essentially living in a dirty factory complex from birth to death with your entire family after the lords took everything from your ancestors and forced you into the city must’ve seemed somewhat less gruesome if you believed your ancestors crawled in the mud. Because the lords and tycoons you work and live for say so.
What a great blog series, thanks for the link!
Honestly, it came up on a StumbleUpon alternative I was using.
Makes sense, having clean skin feels amazing and must have been an affordable luxury (not sure what to call something great-but-cheap).
Commodity
Makes sense that Europeans inherited the Roman custom of bathing. There’s a brief mention that the Romans didn’t use soap. They did have soap, but most people thought water loosened the grime, and they scraped themselves with an implement called a “stringel” - which is where our word “astringent” comes from.
I’m not able to find it again, so it may be entirely bunk, but I remember reading something about the Japanese during early interactions having a stereotype that Europeans didn’t bathe. Obviously this contact was past the medieval stages, but then that makes me ask “Did hygiene become less popular later?”
So, now I’m curious whether this memory is:
A) Pop culture contamination/made up whole cloth, i. e. an author who believed medieval people didn’t bathe and extrapolated it to the 1500s.
B) True, and hygiene did become less popular with Europeans (seems unlikely).
C) Born of the fact that people who have been at sea for so long are not a good representation of overall hygiene.
D) Born from a another factor unrelated to hygiene, but perceived as such by the Japanese. Maybe differences in sweating or diet or something.
E) Some combination of the above.
