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I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

going-medieval.com

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Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#161

Post by raarts »

Osmose wrote: post #159
raarts wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- soap is a motherfucking medieval invention - Your peasant ass - Medieval bathhouses were big fucking business. - Sex workers be showing right TF up in the public baths. - clearly, fucking clearly medieval people bathed - they wanted you to not be going down the bath house and getting your fuck on. - Hitting your chest with rocks and sitting in the desert trying not to wank This is completely unnecessary. You forget…

Folks with PhDs (and/or scientists) swear _all the time_, especially on their own blog that has "swearing" in the subheader as the third most important descriptor and that isn't aimed directly at children. This has nothing to do with the credibility of the article except as tone policing.

Being part of a (STEM) college faculty, I communicate with scientists on a regular basis. They are usually very polite and precise in their language.

Sidenote: nothing wrong with tone policing most of the time. It is exactly what parents do when they raise kids.

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#162

Post by Ekaros »

simonsarris wrote: post #2

ughh I dislike when pop history takes this smarmy tone and is also not particularly accurate. > In fact soap is a motherfucking medieval invention. Yes. It is. The Romans – whomst I don’t see a bunch of basics going around accusing of being filthy – did not, in fact have soap, in contrast. They usually washed using oil. Medieval people? Oh you better believe that they had soap. Wait a minute, what about Aleppo soap?…

Which group of people we mean when we talk about Romans? And from what period? I mean sure some country had computers. After all they are used now so they must have been couple centuries back too right?

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#163

Post by danmaz74 »

kumarvvr wrote: post #12

Its funny that western history distorts the history of the rest of the world. I hear western kids saying no one used to bathe in the ancient times. As an Indian, it was practically mandatory for each and every individual to take a bath at-least two times a day. Additionally the following customs were very prevalent till recent times. 1. Washing legs after coming home from outside. 2. Washing hands, face and legs befo…

> I hear western kids saying no one used to bathe in the ancient times.

Which western kids did you hear from? Every western kid I know studied that in Roman times bathing was a very important activity; as a matter of fact there were very advanced public baths, thermae (which included "sauna" with hot and cold water) in every city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermae

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#164

Post by stavros »

Frost1x wrote: post #37
kumarvvr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In ancient times, right until the attacks by Islamist marauders and "civilized" Britishers, none of what you have mentioned were an issue. Your statement reeks of colonialist attitudes of seeing natives of other lands as some sort of brutes and degenerates living in destitution in poverty. In India, Every village was in the vicinity of a water source. Every village had a temple, with a large pond. Massaging with oil…

>Portable water was not an issue, because industrialization did not yet happen and most water sources (and hundreds of wells dug around the country) would have clean, drinking water. Did you think a thousand years ago, people used water filters? Potable water hasn't been an issue strictly introduced by industrialization, it was exacerbated by increased population density in areas where water sources were more likely…

Did they mean potable, or portable? You don't need potable water to wash your feet, but you do need it to be in your house somehow, I guess...

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#165

Post by kgeist »

darkerside wrote: post #158
kgeist wrote: post #99

The Old Norse word for Saturday, laugardagr, literally means "washing day". This custom still survives here in countryside Eastern Europe where many people routinely go to sauna (banya) every Saturday (or Sunday like my family). Before the 20th century, a lot of Eastern Europe (especially Russia) still lived like they lived in the middle ages: 95% of the country were serfs on feudal property living in traditional woo…

How is one bathed in an oven?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_stove

"As well as warming and cooking, Russian stoves were used for bathing. Once the stove became hot the burning wood was removed, and cast iron containers were put into the stove and filled with water. That allowed people to bathe inside of the stove. A grown man can easily fit inside, and during World War II some people escaped the Nazis by hiding in the stoves."

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#167

Post by rendall »

walrus01 wrote: post #100

If you read translations of early medieval Arabic language travelers that visited Europe, they were almost all universally appalled by the state of hygiene and sewage/waste in major cities in general. Not saying people didn't bathe at all but it clearly didn't meet societally acceptable standards of an educated person from Cairo or Baghdad.

> medieval Arabic language travelers that visited Europe

There was only one IIRC, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who wrote disparagingly only of the habits of the Vikings of the upper Volga river.

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#168

Post by rendall »

sdwr wrote: post #66
anyfoo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've noticed that the more I exercise, the cleaner + healthier my skin is. Showers only get me partly there Define "cleaner"? What is not clean about your skin that requires exercise to get clean? After every shower, my skin is just "clean"?

My face skin looks way better with regular exercise. Something about the pores + overall tone. I start to notice a difference after 2 sedentary days, and am repulsed by it after a week+ without exercise. I also get a musk coming from my groin that seems to seep through clothes, and is barely affected by showering. By sedentary I mean full-on jacked-in to the Matrix, 14 hour days on the computer. Someone with a more b…

Agreed. The more I exercise, the better I smell.

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#169

Post by Ekaros »

eevilspock wrote: post #18

History is written by the upper class, especially in past times when only the upper caste could read or write. Even if what the author says is true about medieval upper caste people (I don't doubt it), I have trouble believing that peasants could afford the cost and time required of regular bathing. Water didn't come easily unless you happened to live next to a river or have a well next to your house. We've all seen…

There is also good question how bathing worked and how much of water was actually used. A family or multiple persons could have shared the same bath water. Thus sharing the heating and procurement costs. Or they could have simply rinsed themselves. 10-20l is quite good enough for washing a body if bucket and something like ladle is used.

Re: I assure you, medieval people bathed (2019)

#170

Post by palmetieri2000 »

olibhel wrote: post #142
fastball wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He mostly seems to be making it up so I wouldn't assume you learned too much.

+1 to this, as an Indian. There's been a recent trend in my country where people, educated or not, have suddenly started finding unnecessary pride in our past - mostly centered around culture and one specific religion - Hinduism. This pride in the past, is helping our current government win elections in great majority. But our past, like every other country's past, is riddle with good and bad. While there are many ma…

I'm sorry but I don't see how the original comment did any of those things... it doesn't even make mention of any of the topics you have listed.
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