On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 1:05 AM, ss <[email protected]> wrote: > > This is interesting information. Could the "vanity" part have been because > only the richest could afford to bathe often in those times and the Church > was catering to the (unwashed) faithful?
Maybe. Europeans who first came to Brazil found Brazilian, errr, indians' habit of bathing everyday weird. A friend of my father's used to tell how in his childhood his italian father wouldn't bath with the rest of the family before church because "bath was for unclean people". The bath the family took was taken by people reusing the water from a bathtub. > How the Japanese got past this - I don't know maybe they have enough hot > springs. As a non-practicing Japanese Brazilian, I can tell furo was very culturally important. My family was not very connected to Japanese culture, but even so, my mom thought it was important for us to have a furo at home, even though we rarely used it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customs_and_etiquette_of_Japan#Bathing I think they also had public bath houses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sent%C5%8D Andre
