Formless wrote:You guys do realize that it wasn't even more than a few centuries ago that people in Europe only took baths once a year at most even if they were of the upper class, right? Evolution has nothing to do with it. Its a cultural thing, and not every society out there from every time period cares as much as we do. Furthermore, we care because of increased awareness of disease and sanitation, not mating rituals. The OP's idea is based on ignorance of historical trends and over analyzing similarities between humans and our evolutionary relatives.
You do realize the whole "bathing once a year" thing is bullshit, right?
Formless wrote:You guys do realize that it wasn't even more than a few centuries ago that people in Europe only took baths once a year at most even if they were of the upper class, right? Evolution has nothing to do with it. Its a cultural thing, and not every society out there from every time period cares as much as we do. Furthermore, we care because of increased awareness of disease and sanitation, not mating rituals. The OP's idea is based on ignorance of historical trends and over analyzing similarities between humans and our evolutionary relatives.
You do realize the whole "bathing once a year" thing is bullshit, right?
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
I think I already posted on that, and I'm pretty sure some other people did too. Haven't seen a response, sadly.
What? I'm busy. My peak posting days are over, I don't have as much time on my hands this year as last year. But yes, you only have to tell me once. I was thinking of the post-syphilis superstitions about bathhouses and assumed that they existed for much longer (medieval stereotypes probably didn't help), but on reflection I can think of more than a few folk tales and related material from that period that explicitly reference the bathing practices of the times they were written in. If you'll excuse me, my crow pie is in the microwave.
(I knew the inter-cultural examples were a better counterpoint...)
"Still, I would love to see human beings, and their constituent organ systems, trivialized and commercialized to the same extent as damn iPods and other crappy consumer products. It would be absolutely horrific, yet so wonderful." —Shroom Man 777 "To Err is Human; to Arrr is Pirate." — Skallagrim
“I would suggest "Schmuckulating", which is what Futurists do and, by extension, what they are." — Commenter "Rayneau"
