@Porcelain wrote:
@gertrudecloset wrote:
@Porcelain wrote:
I exercise every day, so I have to shower every day. But I use very mild bodywash. And since I wear sunscreen almost everyday, I have to wash my face twice a day. I'm careful not to overstrip my skin. Just don't use soap.
And Gross Alert: If you don't own a bidet, as an adult you really do need to (again, gently) wash that area daily. If you know what I mean.
In the past, our ancestors stank. Adults smelled like BO and they covered it with strong perfumes. And they died of simple infections.
Sounds like perfect sense to me. Our ancestors died of simple infections caused by what? Lack of medication or the germs on their bodies @Porcelain ? Just curious. When people migrated from Europe to the States they did bring disease with them, but I don't believe they were from not bathing.
I love the history of daily life. Totally fascinates me. But topics like this on ruin historical romances for me. I can't help thinking the heroes must all have horrendous bad breath and all the heroines must smell yeasty.
People didn't wash with water. In Europe water was usually polluted, so no one trusted it. Everyone thought it carried disease. Which was often true, to be fair. So it was actually considered unclean to bathe or wash with water, or drink it unless it was from a known spring like the one in Bath. Vinegar or alcohol, often cologne, was preferred for washing. And that caused its own problems.
It wasn't until well into the 1800s that a connection between obstetric doctors not washing hands and sepsis from childbirth was even discovered. And even then people refused to believe it. Even the doctors.
Simple infections often started due to poor hygiene and were made fatal by lack of medical knowledge. I think we basically agree about that.
Oddly enough, cleanliness had to do with how clean your linen underclothes were, not your body. Your clean undershirt/slip thingy would peek out and show at your collar and cuffs, and it needed to be spotless or you had to change.
People wore a fresh undershirt every day, and sometimes changed it multiple times a day. Dressing for dinner had an actual reason for it besides putting on something fancier: To take off your stinky undershirt/slip that got all dank during the day and put on a fresh, clean one.
@Porcelainsince we were discussing this "New World" here is a source you might find as interesting as I do. It figures it would be Public Broadcasting stations.
The Story Of... Smallpox – and other Deadly Eurasian Germs
Guns, Germs and Steel
Much of the credit for European military success in the New World can be handed to the superiority of their weapons, their literary heritage, even the fact they had unique load-bearing mammals, like horses. These factors combined, gave the conquistadors a massive advantage over the sophisticated civilisations of the Aztec and Inca empires.
But weapons alone can't account for the breathtaking speed with which the indigenous population of the New World were completely wiped out.
Within just a few generations, the continents of the Americas were virtually emptied of their native inhabitants – some academics estimate that approximately 20 million people may have died in the years following the European invasion – up to 95% of the population of the Americas.
No medieval force, no matter how bloodthirsty, could have achieved such enormous levels of genocide. Instead, Europeans were aided by a deadly secret weapon they weren't even aware they were carrying: Smallpox.
https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html
A Negative Mind ~ Will give you a Negative Life
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