help i've been researching this for a long time and i cant find it?

Question

in how many ways could a medieval peasant clean himself? i kno the medieval ppl didn't have good hygiene, but how could they have cleaned themselves anyway?

Answer 1

In a stream or bearby pond. Most just stayed dirty.

Answer 2

From the Hoax:
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it - hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
The Facts:
Most peasant folk could not afford a bathtub and used a barrel with the top removed.1 The time and energy required to draw enough water from the well to fill a barrel was prohibitive enough to make a full-body bath a rare occasion. However, it wasn't necessary to immerse oneself completely to get clean. Think of what you can do with some cloths, soap, and a bucket of water.

There is no evidence to confirm that peasant families bathed serially in the same bathwater, but they may have occasionally done so to save the extra labor.
However, whatever special occasion prompted the work of a full-body bath may have also prohibited letting the water get too dirty for it to be of much use. Contrary to popular belief, medieval people were not entirely oblivious to matters of hygiene, and are unlikely to have blithely plunged themselves into filthy water "to get clean."

Those who could afford a real bathtub could also afford servants to fill and replenish it, and would have no reason to make their families follow in their polluted bathwater.

For the most part, children were treated with the special care with which they have been treated since the beginning of time. Rather than being submerged in a barrel full of water (filthy or otherwise), an infant would be bathed in a smaller vessel like a basin. There is no reason to believe that the relatively small amount of water needed would not be freshly drawn from the well or mildly heated over the fire in a kettle. There are no known instances of a child being "thrown out" when his bathwater was disposed of.

The expression "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" is German in origin and can be traced to the fifteenth century satire Narrenbeschwörung by Thomas Murner. For more about this, check out Wolfgang Mieder's article at De Proverbio.

Answer 3

Soap was so expensive and rare that even the royal family used it sparingly. In fact, most of the royalty who could afford soap didn't even use it. Francis Burdett once said, "The more dirt removed, the more it stinketh." This is the popularly held notion about cleanliness in the Renaissance. They practiced that motto to such a degree that most people, including the royalty, didn't even bathe more than once or twice a year. King Henry IV of France washed so infrequently that he had to use extremely strong, specially made perfumes to cover up his dreadful body odors. Unfortunately, commoners could afford such luxuries as special perfumes like his.

In those times, they knew nothing about germs. In fact, they didn't even know they existed. Because of this, their hygiene was very poor. Dangerous germs and diseases multiplied and there wasn't much they could do about it without completely changing their lifestyles. Some of the larger cities, some with populations of 100,000, had open and exposed channels down the middle or the side of streets which carried human waste and rubbish out of town. Once every month people from around the community were required to gather and help clean the gutters. Imagine what it would've been like if they didn't.

As in all times, the washing of the clothes was a fairly important part of hygiene. However, in the Renaissance period, they only washed thier clothing two to four times a year. The commoners didn't wash their overclothes, tunics, or capes, but believe it or not, the king, queen and the other royalty didn't even wash their clothes at all. After they became too outrageously gross, they just replaced them and passed the old clothes along to the servants. Sometimes the servants would sell these same garments to Shakespeare's players as costumes as a way of making some extra money.

As the populations of medieval towns and cities increased, hygienic conditions worsened, leading to a vast array of health problems. Medical knowledge was limited and, despite the efforts of medical practitioners and public and religious institutions to institute regulations, medieval Europe did not have an adequate health care system. Antibiotics weren't invented until the 1800s and it was almost impossible to cure diseases without them.

There were many myths and superstitions about health and hygiene as there still are today. People believed, for example, that disease was spread by bad odors. It was also assumed that diseases of the body resulted from sins of the soul. Many people sought relief from their ills through meditation, prayer, pilgrimages, and other nonmedical methods.

The body was viewed as a part of the universe, a concept derived from the Greeks and Romans. Four humors, or body fliuds, were directly related to the four elements: fire=yellow bile or choler; water=phlegm; earth=black bile; air=blood. These four humors had to be balanced. Too much of one was thought to cause a change in personality--for example, too much black bile could create melancholy.

In short commoners washed more often than the wealthier "set".......
more often than not, in rivers and dams were about the only places in the country areas to do so....in the cities, it was usually at the city "baths".....(very uncommon occurance"), or in the same tubs used to wash their clothing......

Answer 4

Hello:

Try these websites. They seem to have a lot of information regarding medieval peasants.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_peasants.htm
http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa053101a.htm?terms=medieval+peasant+clothing
http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/brisas/sunda/ma/1wendy.htm

Good luck.

Answer 5

In the river with weeds and rushes

Answer 6

Thats a very good question You can go to ask.com. and type that end.

Answer 7

here are some sites that may hold the answer for u.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_medicine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages
http://www.medieval-life.net/health_main.htm
http://historymedren.about.com/od/dailylifesociety/a/bod_weddings.htm
http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Post/568421
http://lubakmetyk.infinology.net/others/starshine/healing1.htm
http://www.cleaning101.com/cleaning/history/
http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/2701/?letter=A&spage=1
http://www.cyberbohemia.com/Pages/historyofnordic.htm

hope those helped

Answer 8

take a shower?????