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by b112 4y ago
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- aetherson 4y agoWhile the large majority of people were peasants, the ratio obviously wasn't 99,999:1.
- swatcoder 4y agoI don’t think you’re aware of how much any capable person can procure for themselves and their peers, throughout almost all of global history. Peasants may not maintain secure access to everything, but historically it doesn’t take wealth to have a sturdy shelter, water, warmth, and food, and even some luxuries. It’s a little different in modern times, but those basics were mostly available to everyone just through labor and time, of which peasants have quite a lot.
- badpun 4y agoBesides everything else, you also need to not be taxed into oblivion. Which wasn’t a rare practice in premodern times.
- kumarvvr 4y agoIn ancient times, right until the attacks by Islamist marauders and "civilized" Britishers, none of what you have mentioned were an issue. Your statement reeks of colonialist attitudes of seeing natives of other lands as some sort of brutes and degenerates living in destitution in poverty. In India, Every village was in the vicinity of a water source. Every village had a temple, with a large pond. Massaging with oil and flour based cleansing was the staple of almost every household. Oils and Flours were cheap. Most of agricultural products were cheap in India. Portable water was not an issue, because industrialization did not yet happen and most water sources (and hundreds of wells dug around the country) would have clean, drinking water. Did you think a thousand years ago, people used water filters? The only filter that was used was a fine threaded cloth. Fuel for cooking food, as with any country in those times was usually wood, husk or similar material. > barely able to feed themselves Yeah, no. Leaving aside a few famines here and there, India was mostly self sufficient and had plentiful of food. In fact, selling food was considered the gravest sin. It was codified in societal practices that a householder should try to feed at-least one from outside before he has his food. Food donation was considered the highest ideal, even greater than money. > barely a roof over their heads. Most of the population lived in thatched huts or wood beam supported houses constructed from soil based cement like stuff. I assume this was true all over the world. >You are the peasant. No lands for you, you aren't a lord or lady, you're a peon like 99.999% of people. Almost no middle class, and you aren't upper! You're lower class. This is just an ignorant thing to say, without having any knowledge of world history, forget about Indian history. Also reeks of extreme contempt. If you are not aware, this was how most of the world lived. Lower class was the norm. We are now living in an age of disproportionate luxury.
- b112 4y ago[flagged]
- kumarvvr 4y ago
- b112 4y ago[flagged]
- weakfish 4y agoNobody said you were. You’d know this, if you read the full comment :-)
- palmetieri2000 4y agoI learned a lot from your replies to that individual, so thanks for the efforts even if the target recipient doesn't appreciate them.
- fastball 4y agoHe mostly seems to be making it up so I wouldn't assume you learned too much.
- kumarvvr 4y agoSorry, making up what?
- fastball 4y agoYou made a bunch of claims, someone asked you for a source, you gave them one, someone actually read the source, and it seems that source didn't really match up with your claims. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32364750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32364750
- samarthr1 4y agoSesame oil is the most commonly used oil in traditional cooking. It likely was a staple. A family of four needs about half a days with of cooking oil to have a bath with oil.
- sokoloff 4y agoCould you put some mL estimates on those two measures? It would seem to me that I'd need 50x as much oil to bathe in than I'd need to cook for a half a day, making me think I'm clearly thinking about either the bathing or the cooking quite a bit wrongly.
- mplanchard 4y agoI’d imagine this is talking about more of a sponge bath situation than an immersion situation.
- escape_goat 4y agoWow, you went right ahead and did the thing.
- OJFord 4y agoSesame oil & gram flour are fancy specialist relatively expensive ingredients here (gram flour a bit less so) - but they're grown in India, much more readily available, cheap, and (as another result) used more. Hot water - I assume we're talking about a time period where it would've been heated over fire anywhere in the world.
- pvtAc7 4y agoMarco Polo writes(though south india) Everyone, male and female, washes their whole body twice every day; and those who do not wash are looked down on Dark skin is highly esteemed among these people. ‘When a child is born they anoint him once a week with oil of sesame, and this makes him grow much darker’
- jogjayr 4y agoYeah the oil and hot water sounds crazy over-the-top. But India is a tropical country that's mostly warm year-round. Everyone probably took a dip in a nearby river, lake, or pond every day. Or took a bucket bath with well water, which would have been perfectly warm enough. This isn't possible, or at least far more uncomfortable, in most European countries due to their climate. Plus you sweat way more in the tropics, so daily bathing is an absolute necessity to feel human.