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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)

#221

Post by hef19898 »

p3rls wrote: post #210
danmaz74 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Quoted post unavailable.

To bad for the Romans the wormhole did lead to the Samurai era. Space-time and tank barrel cutting Katanas would have prevented the fall of the Empire.

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

#222

Post by goto11 »

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?…

The author talks about roman soap in the comments.

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

#223

Post by eru »

OJFord wrote: post #174
origin_path wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But surely by that definition Europe was also a unified entity in the medieval period.

I was going to say the same thing, but then I realised the initial claim was also about 'cultural unity'. So fair enough, and yes a lot of Europe (or all of it in a few sections) has been culturally unified since time immemorial. It is a bit more complex though, certainly even today there's some very distinct 'culture' in different regions across India. But also shared themes and roots (e.g. Sanskrit & texts written…

> [...] has been culturally unified since time immemorial.

Could you be a bit more concrete?

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

#224

Post by guerrilla »

zeristor wrote: post #143
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…

“Old Believers” interesting in itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers

ohhhh so that's what Raskolnikov. I'm guessing most people don't get that reference when reading C&P.

> The name Raskolnikov derives from the Russian raskolnik meaning "schismatic" (traditionally referring to a member of the Old Believer movement). The name Rodion comes from Greek and indicates an inhabitant of Rhodes.

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

#225

Post by eru »

oynqr wrote: post #211
kumarvvr wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

All the people who died in the Thirty Years' War would like to have a word with you.

To be fair, that came quite a bit after the medieval period. However, there's plenty of division during the Medieval period.

Eg the Iberian peninsula wasn't even Christian during most of that time. And neither was much of Eastern and Northern Europe.

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

#226

Post by pvtAc7 »

b112 wrote: post #14
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…

[flagged]

Marco Polo writes(though south india)

Everyone, male and female, washes their whole body twice every day; and those who do not wash are looked down on

Dark skin is highly esteemed among these people. ‘When a child is born they anoint him once a week with oil of sesame, and this makes him grow much darker’

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

#227

Post by origin_path »

kumarvvr wrote: post #124
origin_path wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But surely by that definition Europe was also a unified entity in the medieval period.

Quoted post unavailable.

Lots of people question the unified nature of Europe! Whole world wars have been fought over that very question. Regardless of cultural or racial similarities, whether there's a single government or not is a major factor in deciding if an area is a unified entity. That's not some British invention, it's fundamental to the whole concept of a nation state to begin with.

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

#228

Post by eru »

Max-q wrote: post #177
nemothekid wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I stopped reading here. But he's right; I don't know if I would call it colonialist, but you are applying your current perspective of how the poor lives to a culture extremely far removed from our own. I think our current situation of extremely disproportional wealth is a new phenomenon and we should be careful in blindly applying our current viewpoints backwards. India has always been an extremely fertile and arab…

> I think our current situation of extremely disproportional wealth is a new phenomenon Isn’t it more an old phenomenon coming back? All over Europe you had the kings, which were very rich, under them a rich upper class with big houses and staff, tradesmen as the middle class and peasants doing all the work living in extreme poverty.

> [...] tradesmen as the middle class and peasants doing all the work living in extreme poverty.

That's a weird view.

(Urban) tradesmen were sort-of next to peasants, not above them. And many parts of Europe had quite wealthy peasants during many periods.

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

#229

Post by macleginn »

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…

The bathing culture was different in different parts of Russia. It is more developed in the north and people in the south, if fieldwork data are reliable, bathed rather infrequently. Of course, this may also have to do with less firewood being available.

(Also Old Believers' bathing practices have a lot to do with notions of ritual purity, so they cannot be easily projected to the general population.)

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

#230

Post by hypertele-Xii »

b112 wrote: post #17
klodolph wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most other animals? Well, most birds bathe. Elephants shower themselves with their trunks. Cats bathe themselves with their tongues, dogs get in the water and then shake themselves dry, and pigs wallow in the mud. Seems like what makes humans different here is that we use soap.

Animals also use things akin to soap. Birds love to bath in the ashes of a fire, the lye burns parasites, the dust chokes them. I've watched many a bird do so, after a fire.

Some animals even rub themselves on ants' nests because formic acid kills bacteria.
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