Perfume, everyone should be familiar with, will not be explained here. But there is a question, I don't know if you have ever thought about it, that is, why it is so loved and sought after by Westerners and why the perfumes that are popular in the modern world were born in Europe, improved and developed.
First of all, the reason why people in Europe and the United States use perfume more frequently than orientals, in addition to cultural history, popular fashion reasons. More importantly, the differences between Westerners and Easterners are physiological.
As we all know, people have sweat glands, and sweat glands are divided into large sweat glands and small sweat glands, and the sweat secreted by small sweat glands is relatively diluted and basically odorless. The sweat glands are mainly concentrated in the armpits and crotches, and the sweat discharged is not only water, but also a variety of proteins and fatty acids. These substances are inherently odorless, but after decomposition by surface bacteria, they produce irritating gases, that is, odor, or fox odor.
Above_ Medieval European cities
In the long history of human evolution, the secretion of sweat glands in a certain type of person has decreased, which makes the body odor of this part of the person become relatively thin and slight.
Yes, the kind of people I'm talking about are The Orientals, mainly in East Asia.
Other races, on the other hand, are the exact opposite of us, with whites and blacks being only about 10% and 0.5% without fox odor.
In order to cover up the smell emitted by the body, the early Europeans began to spray a large number of perfumes, not only women who loved beauty, but also men competed to follow suit.
Above_ At the banquet table of ancient foreign nobles, the appearance of spices was a symbol of status
But to say that Westerners love perfume only for physiological reasons is biased. In fact, behind this, there is a more hidden historical and cultural background.
For example, the ancient Europeans who were rumored to have not loved to bathe, or even did not wash for many years, and did not wash for a lifetime.
Again, this is a widely circulated rumor.
In fact, the records of bathing in Western history have been recorded for a long time, and a fairly popular custom of daily life has been formed.
Take ancient Rome as an example, in its vast area, there are countless public baths, according to the "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", as early as the 4th century, the Roman Empire, there were many public baths, only the capital City of Rome there are more than 1,000 baths of different sizes, of which the Roman Emperor Caracalla built, known as the Caracalla Baths, its total length of 412 meters, width of 383 meters (the widest point reaches 393 meters), the central bath is 218 meters long, 112 meters wide, swimming pool length of 54 meters, With a width of 23 meters, this scale can be said to be quite amazing in ancient times. Of course, like many other baths, it is a mixed bath.
It can be seen that early Westerners still had a considerable degree of obsession with bathing.
But the arrival of the Black Death changed all that.
Above_ The miserable situation in the European countryside during the Black Death
The plague that swept across Europe lasted for more than three centuries, claiming at least 25 million lives, almost 1/3 of the population of Europe at that time, but in the face of the menacing epidemic, Europe at that time did not have any effective control and treatment.
Although there was no cure, doctors at the time actively searched for the cause of the spread of the disease. They soon discovered that many public baths often had large-scale outbreaks of disease transmission.
From the perspective of modern medicine, this is a very simple phenomenon that can be explained, baths are places where people gather, and the contact between people is too close, including many individuals who have been infected with diseases, which can easily cause viruses and bacteria to infect each other between people and people.
But in that era, doctors came to a completely different conclusion: they believed that it was precisely because the skin was soaked with steam and water that caused the pores to expand, leak vitality, and absorb harmful substances that led to the human body, so they firmly believed that bathing was the root cause of the large-scale outbreak of the Black Death.
Above_ Map of the spread of the Great Plague (Black Death) in medieval Europe
Of course, these medical theories must have been completely wrong, but the general public at that time could only believe these and not do what he thought.
If it's just some of the doctor's remarks, that's it. But we know that Westerners, especially Europeans in the Middle Ages, were generally Catholic. The Church also believes that bathing is harmful to health, and at the same time, they also believe that the dirtier the body, the purer the heart. Not bathing instead became a symbol of divine holiness. However, this is also a reason, as mentioned above, at that time, many public baths in Europe were mixed with men and women, and naturally the men and women who came to the baths to bathe were all sitting in the baths. As a result, public baths soon developed into "social" places for fornication and stealing between men and women, almost indistinguishable from brothels except for bathing. This can also lead to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis. By the way, the water pipes of many public baths in ancient Rome were made of metal lead, which would cause heavy metal poisoning under long-term use, which was also a reason for the low fertility rate and various diseases of the Romans at that time.
Above_ Oil paintings depicting Western public bathhouses
Since bathing has many physical and moral disadvantages, under the non-bathing movement vigorously promoted by the Church, not bathing naturally becomes a "pilgrimage" behavior. Many people have been canonized as "saints" and "holy women" for not bathing for many years.
An Alternative History of Western Civilization writes:
The hermit Abraham did not bathe or wash his feet for nearly 50 years;
A holy virgin in Sylvia was over 60 years old and sick, but "would never wash any part of her body except wash her fingers." "；
Saint Euphracia said that in one of the monasteries visited, more than 130 nuns never washed their feet and vomited when they heard the word "bath".
In addition to ascetic religious figures, certain emperors of secular regimes also prided themselves on not bathing, including Queen Isabel of Spain, who financed Columbus, who claimed to have bathed only twice in her life, once at birth and once when she was married. And King Louis XIV of France, known as the "Sun King", is rumored to have bathed only three times in his life, at birth, marriage, and death. Even today, there are still some people in London who basically do not bathe, and the power of habit is really as strong as carved into DNA.
Above_ Religious theologians of Europe
I don't know if I can purify the soul without bathing for many years, but one thing is certain, that is, the body can only be dirty and filthy, and the smell is stinking. So what to do? Naturally, it is necessary to use a large amount of perfume to further cover up the smell of the body. This, in turn, boosted the prosperity of the perfume industry.
However, perfume can only be used to mask its own body odor, but it cannot remove it.
Above_ The container used by Westerners to hold perfume
In fact, writing here, perfume, bathing and these things themselves are no longer important, what is important is the correlation between the political economy, social culture and human thinking hidden behind these phenomena.
We can think of the history of European prejudice against bathing from perfumes. But to peel back the surface, medieval Europeans did not bathe in addition to cultural factors, there are deeper economic factors. In the past, energy was a scarce resource. To take a bath, you have to boil water, and to boil water, you need to use coal, charcoal, firewood, grease and other substances. You know, coal was not cheap in the past, or even expensive, except for the rich merchants and gentry, the princes and nobles, I would like to ask, the poor common people who have the economic ability to do regular bathing.
Some people may say that there is no firewood? Not to mention that the heat conversion of firewood is not high, it is not cheap in itself, besides, to cut firewood to have firewood, who will cut it? Go by yourself, the land is not planted, and the business is still not done. If you buy firewood, you still have to spend money. Due to the rudimentary, imperfect, or even non-existent water supply and drainage facilities, sewage in many European cities flows freely between the streets, which causes great health problems and increases the breeding of bacteria and viruses.
Above_ The sanitary conditions of medieval European cities were very poor
At its worst, even the water for human drinking is muddy, filthy, and smelly. Even at this time, Europeans did not have the habit of boiling water to drink, which may be economic reasons! In order to prevent drinking water from causing disease, they can only ferment water and grain into beer to remove odors, sterilize and disinfect. This is also the historical reason why many countries in Europe are rich in beer.
In the Middle Ages, when basic food and clothing were difficult to fully guarantee, people only focused on the most necessary places needed to survive.
Matter determines consciousness, and the productive forces determine the relations of production and the superstructure and culture, which is the most basic law of social development.
Author: The Other Side of the Clouds Correction/Editor: Lilith
Resources:
[1] Alternative History of Western Civilization [Beauty] Richard Zux Hainan Publishing House
[2] A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author