looking for ways to fly

Sooo here's a thing.

In a thread about subtextual white supremacy, I discussed how European sanitation during the Colonial Period was not exactly fantastic. A few 'historians' impolitely disagreed. The implication was Natives were nothing to brag about. Come explore with me.

It all centered around historical records of people visiting Versailles, complaining about the lack of public toilet facilities, and being generally flabbergasted (read: nauseated) by the overall smell of the place. Some 'historians' in my mentions were not happy. I wish I was kidding, but it turns out there are Versailles stans. One was so pissed off I would even suggest Louis XIV's palace wasn't a place I'd care to have dinner, they started sending me paintings and drawings of women from the time peeing into bowls. Again, not kidding. I don't know why they thought I'd be in to watersports, but there it was.

If you think I'm exaggerating, this is just one of the replies I got:

Keen-eyed viewers will note I've had to blur a section of this painting to stay in line with posting guidelines. Yeah, this painting is unnecessarily accurate, especially when you consider there is no way a model held this exact position for the several hours it would have taken to paint this. It was, I guess, a key piece of evidence, as far as they were concerned, to demonstrating that Versailles was actually quite clean and sweet-smelling. Personally, the image of crowds of people walking around with bowls of their own urine (or footmen doing same) left me... unconvinced.

Also, some discussion was made by the same people of blaming various cholera outbreaks that occurred in England on, of all things, India. Again, I wish I was exaggerating for effect. The implication to all of it was, unlike Europe, the rest of the world, quite literally, didn't have their shit together. If course it also implies a bunch of people from India flew to England in the 1830s specifically to poop in the river, which just seems like a lot of work frankly.

Reminder: the explanation JK Rowling had of how the wizard world deals with sewers was they don't, they simply 'magic' the poop away. Similarly, what happens to that bowl of pee all these French courtesans were carrying around was seemingly irrelevant to my 'historian' commenters. It's just 'cleaner' that way... somehow.

I think it's worth mentioning neither London nor Paris (nor Versailles for that matter, which wasn't in Paris specifically) even had unified municipal sewers, well into the 19th century. Bazalgette's famous system wasn't completed until 1870, and that was London. Many of you may be aware, London is not in Paris. As one Sydney Smith, an Anglican cleric from the period put it, "He who drinks a tumbler of London water has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are men, women, and children on the face of the globe". Charming.

And Paris...? Victor Hugo wrote a whole book about it, called the sewers "The Intestine of the Leviathan". Described them during the reign of Louis XIV as "a cloaca". So, doin' real good there, clearly. But, see, that's not what these 'historians' were on about. For them, chamberpots are a step up from just peeing in the street. Quite literally, that same one who sent me the pics drew the analogy of someone just letting go in a random alley. A bourdaloue is "civilized".

They couldn't believe I would think that disgusting for the period. Thing is tho, as I mentioned in the initial thread, in his 2nd "Letter from Mexico" Cortés compared Tenochtitlán to Venice by saying Venice was dirtier. What did he mean? Whelp I'll tell ya, he meant a lot. For example, this is a "temezcal".

It's the Nahuatl name for a steam bath that originated with the Maya, possibly even the Olmec, making it a standard architectural feature of most villiages and cities in Central America for at least 3000yrs. This one was uncovered in "Nakum", in Guatemala. Relatedly, the Olmec city dubbed San Lorenzo, in present-day Veracruz State, had an extensive drainage system made up of interrelated conduits constructed of stones into which were carved a channel and then, once assembled, covered with a capstone to prevent incursion and odors.

If you still need a European analog, think Roman aqueducts and Greek baths. Only it wasn't just in Central America. Various types of "Sweat Lodge" traditions are available well up into Canada also going back several thousand years (at least).

Did I mention the Jamestown settlers were so annoyed at the local Native population for bathing all the time that they wrote about it in their private journals? Because the Jamestown settlers were totally annoyed at the local Natives for bathing a lot:

They even wash babies!!

Nakum, where that hottub was from, wasn't even a capital city. The capital for the area was Tikal. In locations like England the city of Bath became a destination so famous the name of the town is now immortalized in the language for "a place where one goes to wash". In Nakum that meant the next room. Meanwhile, a century after Jamestown, French aristocrats are wandering around aimlessly carrying their pee in bowls and emptying them out windows in the seat of the single most powerful family in all of France.

Moving swiftly on, a 15th century rendering of copalcocote from the sumac family, aka Cyrtocarpa procera, or 'soap tree' which grows all over Northern S. America, Southern N. America, and Central America. The fruit's resin has a similar effect to lye soap, hence the name. The Spanish wandering around the Americas shooting everybody looking for the Cities of Gold occasionally took time out to draw the thing. I guess using it was still a step too far though. Despite Arabs, Ancient Rome, and ancient Egypt all having soap too, "modern" Europe didn't start using it popularly until after 1750. Which would be ~250 years after Hernán Cortés wrote a letter to Emperor Charles V rambling on about how Tenochtitlán was cleaner and better organized than Venice or Seville.

There's also annatto, aka achiote, aka lipstick plant. It grows all over the Caribbean and northern S. America. The seed pods contain a red powder that is used in everything from cosmetics to spices. It has an earthy aroma in a similar way but not with the same scent as patchouli or nutmeg. Behold, Native deodorant:

Me: