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OT Historians and Anthropologists: Did human history stink?
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:30 am
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:30 am
In the midst of my daily movement it occurred to me that I've really take for granted modern plumbing. Sewage fricking stinks.
Toilets have been around for thousands of years but basically it was just a platform with a hole in it so you still had the smells. plumbing traps (what actually prevents the smells from the sewer coming back) have been around only since 1775 but not widely used until flush-able toilets came around in the 1880s. so we're less 150 years of life without smelling our shite everywhere. (I get that there are places in the world that don't have the benefit of modern plumbing #blessed). this is just smells from the sewer, deodorant didn't come around until the late 1880s as well, also not widely used until recently. I know they had perfumes and scented oils, but I would have to imagine that was only affordable by the upper classes, common folk must have just reeked with BO. Then horse shite in the streets, there were not any cars, so people used horses they shite and piss everywhere.
Ultimately to me the bulk of human history had to smell something awful, or were people just immune to bad smells because they were everywhere?
Toilets have been around for thousands of years but basically it was just a platform with a hole in it so you still had the smells. plumbing traps (what actually prevents the smells from the sewer coming back) have been around only since 1775 but not widely used until flush-able toilets came around in the 1880s. so we're less 150 years of life without smelling our shite everywhere. (I get that there are places in the world that don't have the benefit of modern plumbing #blessed). this is just smells from the sewer, deodorant didn't come around until the late 1880s as well, also not widely used until recently. I know they had perfumes and scented oils, but I would have to imagine that was only affordable by the upper classes, common folk must have just reeked with BO. Then horse shite in the streets, there were not any cars, so people used horses they shite and piss everywhere.
Ultimately to me the bulk of human history had to smell something awful, or were people just immune to bad smells because they were everywhere?
17
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:31 am to Emteein
7/10. Would recommend to others
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:37 am to Emteein
Could you imagine how bad sex must have smelled when people only bathed once or twice a year? I bet pushing your dick in was like pulling apart a grilled cheese sandwich.
For most of human history hygiene was a greeting.
For most of human history hygiene was a greeting.
This post was edited on 12/27/18 at 1:41 pm
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:38 am to Emteein
Luxury once experienced becomes necessity......they knew of nothing different, so the perception of that level of stink wasn’t that bad. Funny how people see old portrates of ladies holding bouquets and don’t realize those were to help mitigate the daily stink by periodically smelling them and such.
This post was edited on 12/27/18 at 9:39 am
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:46 am to celltech1981
Don’t ruin grilled cheese like that 
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:49 am to Emteein
quote:
so we're less 150
o you're taking the small sample of your life and applying it to normal everyday sights and smells from history.
If you woke up smelling a certain way every day and everyone else smelled that way and no one knew any different then how would you know it smells bad vs good vs normal.
There are certain smell I enjoy that most would turn their nose up at like, a stockyard.
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:55 am to Emteein
quote:
Ultimately to me the bulk of human history had to smell something awful, or were people just immune to bad smells because they were everywhere?
Look at shitholes around the world, it still stinks.
Hell, go to NBR and it stinks, roads lined with garbage.
Hygiene is rather new
Posted on 12/27/18 at 9:59 am to Emteein
That's why the outhouse was out of the house.
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:02 am to celltech1981
quote:
I bet pushing your dick in was like pulling apart a grilled cheese sandwhich
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:03 am to Emteein
You can get a daily dose of what it smelled like back then.
Just go to Bourbon St.
Just go to Bourbon St.
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:03 am to celltech1981
quote:
Could you imagine how bad sex must have smelled when people only bathed once or twice a year?
This literally made me want to vomit...
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:04 am to Emteein
In the mid-nineteenth century, New York possessed a primitive sewage system. Poorly planned sewers spanned the city, but most citizens’ homes did not connect to these pipes. Instead, most New Yorkers relied on outdoor outhouses and privies. These outhouses were usually poorly maintained and covered in filth. Poorer families did not even have the luxury of an outhouse. They simply dug a small trench into the ground outside of their homes. Trenches and outhouses were both unsavory solutions as waste was rarely removed from them and frequently flowed into the streets of the city.
Because of the high levels of unmanaged waste, epidemics of infectious diseases were commonplace in New York. 21 The city battled outbreaks of smallpox, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and tuberculosis. In 1849, a rash of cholera struck the city, killing more than five thousand people.
LINK
Because of the high levels of unmanaged waste, epidemics of infectious diseases were commonplace in New York. 21 The city battled outbreaks of smallpox, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and tuberculosis. In 1849, a rash of cholera struck the city, killing more than five thousand people.
LINK
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:07 am to Emteein
I wish the person who first broke wind would have fixed it.
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:13 am to soccerfüt
How We Got to Now - Plumbing
Short video fro ma PBS series called How we Got to Now. Did an entire episode on how indoor plumbing came about. Some insight on what it was like before then.
Apparently Chicago was the first city to get what we think of as indoor plumbing..But the way they did it was pretty awesome
Short video fro ma PBS series called How we Got to Now. Did an entire episode on how indoor plumbing came about. Some insight on what it was like before then.
Apparently Chicago was the first city to get what we think of as indoor plumbing..But the way they did it was pretty awesome
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:15 am to CharlesLSU
quote:
they knew of nothing different, so the perception of that level of stink wasn’t that bad.
Like living in a paper mill town!
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:21 am to Emteein
I agree with the OP.....I've often thought that if one were transported back in time the first thing you would notice would be the smell. The smell of everyone and everything. Would be unbearable for someone alive today.
And yes I'm aware there are still places like that today.
As other posters have said, the people of that time were bothered less by it than we would.
And yes I'm aware there are still places like that today.
As other posters have said, the people of that time were bothered less by it than we would.
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:21 am to Emteein
Of course people use to stink. But you’ve got to remember the notion of something stinking is a matter of perspective. For example if you were able to travel back in time to a small village in 12th century Central Europe, the first thing you’d notice is how everyone there stinks due to the fact it was common for people to only bathe like once or twice their entire life. But to those people there in that Village who’d lived like that their entire life, they’d not notice their fellow villagers odor anymore than they’d notice their own odor.
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:24 am to Emteein
This is why people got married in the spring. They all got their baths after the winter season, and who would want to get married all stank?
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:26 am to Emteein
I read a sci fi novel about time travel a while back and one of the minor themes was how hard it was to get used to the absolute funk that people who lived in that era took no notice of.
Posted on 12/27/18 at 10:30 am to CoachDon
quote:
In the mid-nineteenth century, New York possessed a primitive sewage system. Poorly planned sewers spanned the city, but most citizens’ homes did not connect to these pipes. Instead, most New Yorkers relied on outdoor outhouses and privies. These outhouses were usually poorly maintained and covered in filth. Poorer families did not even have the luxury of an outhouse. They simply dug a small trench into the ground outside of their homes. Trenches and outhouses were both unsavory solutions as waste was rarely removed from them and frequently flowed into the streets of the city.
Because of the high levels of unmanaged waste, epidemics of infectious diseases were commonplace in New York. 21 The city battled outbreaks of smallpox, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and tuberculosis. In 1849, a rash of cholera struck the city, killing more than five thousand people.
In the current era, a gentleman walks on a sidewalk to the outside of a lady to protect her from splashes from the street. In past times he walked to her inside because people dumped garbage and, literally, shite out their windows. The Shakespearian insult "Go to the wall" in Romeo and Juliet is a reference to this.
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