[Ansteorra] Shenanigans II: Electric Boogaloo

[Stefan li Rous]

> I have never heard of a Laurel insisting that something be done in a  
> way that is not only gross, but unhygienic & possibly one of the  
> reasons why the the life spans were so short.
>
> Gabriele

I'd like to see your evidence for each of your three statements above.

1) the use of urine is "gross"
2) the use of urine is unhygienic
3) it had any effect on the general life spans in the Middle Ages
4) that the life spans in the Middle Ages in general were actually  
that much shorter, than say the early 20th century. Perhaps this  
depends on your definition of "shorter".

My own opinions are:
1) Not really. Urine can be a useful chemical
2) I don't see any reason that it using it today has to be.
3) Only a few tradesman used urine or it's byproducts and one reason  
they were zoned to be outside of town or in certain quarters was the  
smell, not necessarily the hygiene. We do have the statistics on  
certain trades being dangerous such as those dealing with lead or  
mercury. Which industries using urine or urine byproducts do you see a  
high fatality in?
4) Life span numbers are often misunderstood. The high mortality rate  
brings down the overall mortality. But if you take the numbers from  
say late childhood on, you can often see that they aren't that much  
lower than the early 20th century, although they do differ over the  
centuries. People did live into their 40s, 50s and 60s in the Middle  
Ages. So I'm not sure where you get the "so short".

This does get difficult because you can find exceptions to almost any  
blanket statement about the Middle Ages and/or the cultures covered by  
the SCA.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****