Latest / Privycast / Ep. 129 Hammams and Eastern Bathing Rituals

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Ep. 129 Hammams and Eastern Bathing Rituals · Privycast

0:01
>> Hunter Hoover: In the use in the area of ritual purification,
0:04
it's just not. It's just not as practical. And
0:07
you don't have to expose your
0:10
digit to get ritually pure. You can get
0:12
ritually pure at home and then go do your
0:15
worship and then go back.
0:22
Welcome back to privy. Privy is a
0:25
podcast about bathrooms
0:27
recorded from my home
0:30
bathroom. I'm your host, Hunter Hoover,
0:33
and I love bathrooms. Welcome. Uh, back, everyone.
0:36
Um, if you didn't notice, and, uh, I should
0:39
just let you know, there's this thing that's
0:42
happening in podcasts, and that
0:44
is, for some reason, they
0:47
took this thing that is primarily a
0:50
video medium or an audio medium, and
0:53
they decided that it would be really cool and it would
0:56
be super rad if we started to add video
0:59
to it. And what that means is,
1:02
for folks like me, whose ugly
1:05
mug is trying to kind of stay off
1:09
the Internet more often than not, um, now
1:11
you have. Now you. If you want, you can
1:14
stare at me in my
1:17
scraggy situation, um, as I sit here
1:20
in my home bathroom. Here's. Here's the
1:23
toilet paper. Like, here we are. We're
1:26
here. Um, and this is it. This is where I record.
1:29
I've recorded probably 90% of my episodes
1:32
right here. That. There she is.
1:35
Old blue right back there. So
1:38
this is venture into video. Uh, and
1:41
I don't know, this is probably a bad idea. Uh,
1:44
and if it's a bad idea,
1:47
we won't keep doing it. But, um, pretty
1:50
much if you're hearing this and you're in an audio format, if you
1:53
are interested in video, what I need you to do is go
1:56
over to YouTube and
1:58
subscribe. That'll let me know that you are even at all interested
2:01
in having video in this. And if you're not, that's totally fine. The
2:04
audio will always be there. This episode will be in
2:07
your podcatcher, just like every episode has been.
2:10
But if you want to see me rant in the ravings of a
2:13
madman into this microphone, and
2:16
if you want to watch that, that's fine.
2:19
Um, go over to YouTube, subscribe. Leave us a comment on
2:22
this video saying, I like the video. Say something.
2:25
Um, you can say, hey, your beard is. It
2:28
needs trimmed. Yes. It's not happening. 2024 is the
2:31
year of no trim. What? Little weather update for
2:34
you. It's wet. Uh, or at least it was. It
2:36
was wet, and it was wet much into the month of
2:39
April. April showers bring allergy
2:42
flowers. Um, and the allergies
2:45
are flying. Uh, you hear it in my
2:47
voice. I've got the seasonal rasp
2:50
going on that's partially, um,
2:53
from. Oh, you guys get to see all the
2:56
nasty creaks and.
2:58
Yep. Um, all the
3:01
burps and all the weird things that I edit out.
3:04
If you're listening to audio, it's right here on the. On the video,
3:07
and I do not have editing
3:10
time to do that. So here, video
3:13
folks. Welcome. You're getting total uncut.
3:16
Maybe I'll cut stuff if it's really randy. But,
3:19
yeah, allergies are
3:21
flying. Um, at the. At
3:24
the point of this episode's release, spring
3:27
break was a whole month ago. I know that's hard to
3:29
believe. I'm two fire pits deep
3:32
for the year, so that's cool. Uh,
3:35
and at the point of this record, which when,
3:38
again, like, almost three weeks to a month
3:41
ago, um, I have been
3:43
eating some leftover pulled pork Mac that
3:46
my wife and sister in law made when my sister in
3:49
law was visiting us during spring break. And I'm here to tell
3:52
you it's delicious.
3:55
But there is almost a venn
3:58
diagram, complete circle.
4:01
Over days, I eat
4:04
x number of days slash weeks old
4:07
pulled pork and Mac and cheese, and
4:10
days that my bathrooming situation gets
4:12
wild and crazy. So, um,
4:16
it's very good. It is now all gone at the point of this
4:19
episode's recording and release. Um,
4:22
but there is. Yeah, I was
4:25
snoshing on that, and my coworkers at the high school,
4:28
they have to bear with me because
4:31
the way it was frozen was just in ziploc bags. And
4:34
so I'll pull out this Ziploc bag, and
4:37
it will truly be, like,
4:40
me emptying, like, just squeezing
4:43
this Ziploc bag into my
4:46
little bowl to put into the microwave. And
4:49
just in the middle of the classroom, just squeezing out
4:52
a big, just brown and
4:54
yellow pulled pork and Mac
4:57
log from this frozen ziploc bag. It's
5:00
truly delightful. And, um, I regret nothing.
5:04
And I ate it all. It has been eaten in its entirety.
5:07
Now I'm on to our very, very dated
5:10
out, uh, frozen, uh, pizza, and then I will move
5:13
on to tackle our olive garden buildups.
5:17
Uh, I'm a creature of the frozen leftovers.
5:19
That's. There's the
5:22
allergy nose. That's what you need to know.
5:27
I also heard this theory the other day, and I want to,
5:30
you know, you shout out at me if think there's anything to this,
5:33
but the theory posits that the warmer the
5:35
fart, the more stinky the fart is gonna
5:38
be. Now, it's a thought.
5:42
Um, but it really made me wonder, like,
5:45
why? Why would a
5:48
warmer fart be a stinkier fart?
5:50
And from what I can tell, the hotter the
5:53
fart, the less gas you
5:56
have. It is as if, like, when you have
5:58
a lot of volume of gas, you're pushing out
6:01
a lot of air really quickly. Um, and so
6:04
more gas means faster,
6:07
but where if you have less gas, it's not moving as
6:10
quick, and so it's actually warmer. They
6:13
also say that if you're wearing tight pants, it's going to get trapped. So,
6:16
like, if you get the short pants will give you the hot farts.
6:19
That's. That's what you need to know. Um,
6:22
but we're not here to talk about allergy
6:25
noses. And we're not here to talk about three week old pulled
6:28
pork and Mac. And we're not here to talk about hot pants
6:31
and your short farts. Either
6:33
way, um, we're here to talk about
6:36
an environment where stanky
6:39
farts are gonna be a huge
6:42
party foul.
6:50
I should tell you, this episode
6:53
has lived in my, uh,
6:56
notes as the prompt
6:59
titled Eastern Bathing
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rituals for some time. And when you
7:04
look that up, there is primarily one type
7:07
and one thing that consistently
7:10
pops up when you google eastern bathing
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rituals. And we're going to discuss that
7:15
one thing this week on privy.
7:18
We're talking about hamams.
7:22
Whose mom. No. Uh-huh. Hamams are
7:25
also known as turkish
7:27
baths, and they are a type of steam
7:30
bath associated with the islamic
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world.
7:35
Oh, yeah, really cranking
7:38
that one on the attuned
7:41
audio listener. For those who are joining us
7:43
via video. Hi, um, I normally
7:46
edit the slurping out. You don't get
7:49
that audio, I'll get rid of
7:52
it for you. But
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hammams are normally, uh,
7:57
associated with the islamic world.
8:00
And while these turkish baths
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have been adapted from the islamic faith
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for use outside that
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culture, their origin was tied
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specifically to islamic purification
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rituals. These rituals,
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mandated and called for in their
8:21
faith, are commonly done to prepare
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oneself for prayer.
8:27
In some traditions of Islam,
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it is done to prepare for the
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reading, or at the strictest, the
8:35
holding of a Quran. So you'll have to do this in order to
8:38
get ready to, like, hold or read the Quran in their
8:41
faith. For those who don't know,
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um, I'm a youth pastor, and when
8:47
you hear the idea that you have
8:50
to ritually prepare yourself to read, let
8:53
alone hold your scripture, it gives
8:56
me pause. Not because I don't have
8:59
regard for the Bible, um, but
9:02
I already spend enough
9:04
time encouraging people, and including young
9:07
people, just to read the Bible. The fact
9:10
that they'd have to shower first is somewhat challenging. They should
9:13
be showering anyway. Um, christians
9:16
shower yourselves. Uh, but. Oh, well, we're not here we
9:19
are. But the ritual cleansing spas
9:22
have their ties originally
9:25
to none other than the roman empire. Guys,
9:28
we made it. There's your roman empire.
9:31
Brain wipe for the day.
9:35
We've talked before about, uh, ancient
9:38
roman public baths and
9:41
bathrooms, uh, but they also had public baths.
9:44
These were often called thermaze,
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named for the warm water and the steaming
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effect that they would produce.
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These baths were filled by nearby water
9:57
supplies such as rivers or through
10:00
the newly targeted technology of aqueducts.
10:02
I'm going to be honest, for the life of me,
10:05
I cannot figure out how aqueducts work. I've read it,
10:08
I've looked at the pictures, I've watched a video.
10:12
I cannot figure it out. I don't understand
10:15
it. Um, this water
10:18
is then heated with fire and channeled
10:21
into the bathing room called
10:24
the caldarium. The term thermae is
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originally used for hot springs, but then begins
10:30
to be used to refer to these man
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made baths. These were often
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used and reused for the coming 500
10:39
years, but it was in the 500
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600s where things took a turn.
10:45
In ad 570, Muhammad
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was born m to human
10:50
parents in Mecca
10:53
one day. It is believed that Muhammad
10:56
received at the age of 40 a message from the angel
10:59
Gabriel and three years later went out
11:02
as Allah's prophet, preaching, God is
11:05
one and they ought to submit to Islam.
11:07
And one aspect of his time as prophet was the
11:10
conquest of much of the arab Middle east
11:13
and parts of Europe and Asia.
11:16
These were carried out by Muhammad's
11:19
successors. These conquests were also carried out by
11:21
Muhammad's successors.
11:24
As they expanded in this way, often
11:27
through outright bloodshed in the name of
11:29
Allah, they destroyed and
11:32
updated many aspects of the cultures
11:35
they overthrew. One of these
11:37
areas was that of the roman and
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byzantine locations where they had
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these roman bathhouses. And as
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families and as muslim communities begin
11:48
to get set up in these areas,
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they begin to update
11:56
and repurpose existing
11:59
infrastructure to meet their
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ritualistic bathing needs.
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As was noted, the muslim people must perform
12:08
ablutions, that is, their ritual
12:10
bathing and cleansing before prayer.
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This often requires a full
12:17
bath. These bathhouses then
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are, uh, repurposed to fit the
12:22
methods, using more water and steam to
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allow for ritual purification.
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Now there is some
12:31
disagreement about whether they really
12:34
use this for the purpose of
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cleansing. Some argue that the public
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nature of the bathhouse would not allow
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someone to get as ritually
12:44
pure as, as I like to say it
12:47
up in there. To really get
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oneself ritually clean. Now, I
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don't know how, I don't know how. Lost in the sauce.
12:56
You gotta get to be considered
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rich, clean enough to worship.
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We, um, differ fundamentally on
13:06
our belief on that to go in peace.
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Um, but it
13:12
cannot be denied that as
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Islam spread outside of these
13:17
territories, they began to build their
13:20
own public bathhouses.
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New construction of these structures in the
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newly conquered muslim world first began
13:30
in the regions of Syria and Jordan
13:33
in the late six and seven hundredths.
13:36
These were usually part of
13:38
like, desert castles built for
13:41
princes and other ruling, uh,
13:43
parties. And once the
13:46
trend caught on,
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they begin to build
13:52
more and more of these islamic
13:54
bathhouses, or
13:57
hammams, all across the muslim
13:59
conquered world. The
14:02
biggest change that, that they made to.
14:05
So they took the existing roman bathhouse, the
14:08
public one, where everybody goes in and they got. They
14:11
fiddly bit flinging around because it's like both public
14:14
and you're bathing. I
14:17
don't know. I don't get the draw to baths
14:20
as it is. I've spoken at length about how I think
14:23
baths are ridiculous. Um, I don't get
14:26
the draw, but also to
14:29
have my digit flapping around where people.
14:32
I just. That seems. I don't
14:34
get it. Like, sort yourself
14:37
out. Uh, but anyway, whatever,
14:41
I digress. Um,
14:43
but the trend caught on and they begin to build these, but
14:46
as they do, they start to repurpose
14:49
and they begin to make
14:52
adjustments to the. The already existing
14:55
roman bathhouses. Um,
14:57
one of the key
15:01
things that happens, and this is colonization, by the way. We don't like
15:04
to use that word because, oh, ah, only white people.
15:07
But like, whatever, just, it's,
15:10
that's what this is. They take the old and are
15:13
repurposing and rethrowing away the stuff that they don't
15:16
want and keeping the things they do and retconning it to fit the
15:18
culture. It's what every culture does
15:21
when they are in control in an area.
15:24
It happens. Is it always good?
15:27
No. Does it happen? And is it sometimes
15:30
necessary? Yeah, it, like,
15:33
anytime you have the mixing of cultures, something is going to have to
15:36
give. Here we are. But the biggest changes
15:39
underwent was the doing away with the cold. Room
15:42
for the roman baths. The roman
15:44
bathhouses had a room with cold
15:47
water. Think like a big swimming pool. That's like, that's
15:50
the closest thing I can think of. It's like a swimming pool. Swimming, uh,
15:53
pools are cold. They're really not that cold. What people don't
15:56
get is that swimming pools are not
15:58
cold. They're just not
16:01
warm. And the air is hot when you
16:04
use them. So, like, swimming pools, they're, they're usually
16:07
like, I want to say, like 70 something degrees,
16:10
maybe. And that's not terribly,
16:13
uh, warm. It's probably warmer than that, but it
16:16
feels very cool because of how warm
16:19
it is outside. And when we are in
16:22
water, it's easy to get cold
16:24
anyway. But they did away with these cold
16:27
baths. Uh,
16:29
and I don't know if you know about, like, the ice
16:32
bath bros. There's these guys, and I guess there's women,
16:35
too, but I think it's one of those, like, I gotta
16:38
prove something type things. And I'm sure there's health
16:41
benefits, but, like, whatever. Maybe one day
16:44
we'll do an episode on Ice baths and I'll locate
16:47
myself. Right around the corner, right over there, is our bath. And maybe
16:50
I'll, maybe I'll ice bath myself and we'll get video
16:53
and it'll just, it'll be bad. And we won't just hate the
16:56
fact that we did it. You don't want that.
16:59
Um, it'll be a lot of me going like that as
17:02
I freeze myself. But there's these, like,
17:05
ice bath bros. It's like
17:08
hammer bros, but like, ice bath bros. Do you know what
17:11
I'm saying? Um, but essentially they're these, like,
17:14
gluttons for punishment who get, like,
17:17
a feeding trough, and then they
17:20
fill it with ice. They go down to, like, the 711
17:23
and they're like, hey, I need, like, 40 bags of
17:26
ice. Dang, you must be having a party. No,
17:29
I just need to fill an ice trough because I'm trying
17:32
to see how much I can just shrank
17:35
everything, really frozone
17:38
my business.
17:41
But they get a feeding trough and they fill it with ice, and then they fill it
17:44
with water, and then they sit in it and
17:47
they're like, you know, they're
17:49
freezing and they do this for
17:52
health benefits. Now, I'm sure there are
17:55
health benefits to doing this, m
17:59
but here's the deal. Hot showers
18:02
are really good. Like, really
18:05
good. I don't know.
18:08
Hot showers are just really good. And,
18:11
um, the Muslims killed
18:14
the cold baths in these bathhouses, but they
18:17
added and maintained the hot
18:19
rims.
18:22
Second, they used
18:25
running water in some type for better
18:27
purification. While the baths
18:30
existed, the, they served
18:33
less for the purpose of purity and more for
18:36
health benefits. So pretty much what this did is,
18:39
like, if you sit in your own filth,
18:43
you have to get clean before you do. So
18:45
otherwise you're not ritually pure, and so
18:49
they had to get clean, but then they could sit in the bath for the health
18:52
benefits of the bath.
18:55
It should also be noted that for three
18:58
centuries, women were not usually
19:00
visiting these, but eventually many of
19:03
them have updated to have separate hours
19:06
for men and women. And that
19:09
was pretty commonplace by, like, the 10th century. You
19:12
find that pretty established by the 10th
19:15
century.
19:21
As such,
19:25
in the muslim world, they have often been
19:28
criticized for their treatment and view of
19:30
women seemingly as lesser. And I'm not muslim,
19:34
but it is a perception, um, by many.
19:38
These bathhouses and the
19:41
times women could spend there away from their
19:43
husbands, ah, probably away from children,
19:47
um, were some of the only social
19:49
time they had with other women
19:52
in their community. If you've ever
19:55
been to, like, a western spa, kind of.
19:58
Even when spas and
20:01
saunas are depicted in pop culture,
20:05
it is depicted as if the gossip is
20:08
running amok. And you can see where this
20:10
idea derives from. In the islamic
20:13
use of hammams,
20:17
there was often a small fee or a tax to
20:20
be paid to use these facilities,
20:23
paying to be ritually pure. That's interesting to
20:26
me. But its money was then used for the upkeep
20:29
of other islamic structures
20:34
after the year 1000, further
20:37
conquering and mixing of groups, and had a
20:39
huge impact on the cultures of
20:42
both the muslim people, but as well as the
20:45
people they were interacting with and conquering and
20:47
intermixing with,
20:50
some which emerged were eastern, roman, islamic,
20:53
Persian, and the Turks. And they all had a further influence
20:56
on each other. The Ottomans, the
20:59
Ottoman Turks, also became patrons of
21:02
and users of the hammams that
21:05
began to be popping up in the region.
21:08
The Ottoman Turks, however, often focused more
21:11
on the social aspect of hammams,
21:14
but they began to be built all across the Ottoman
21:17
Empire. And these are where we begin to
21:20
be called the turkish baths.
21:23
As time went on, turkish baths, or
21:26
hammams, began to be more intricate and
21:29
larger. Hammams continued to be
21:31
used as a key part in muslim
21:34
culture, a center part
21:37
of social life, and in many
21:39
instances, the islamic ritual purification
21:42
and healing described in
21:45
the islamic faith.
21:47
However, there was a marked decline
21:50
in the use of and the building of
21:53
these structures in the beginning of the 19
21:56
hundreds when we introduced indoor
21:59
money.
22:03
As the use of hamams declined, their use has
22:07
shifted to being repurposed for other
22:09
buildings, turned into pools, used for museum.
22:12
It's kind of ironic, like,
22:15
I make this joke, and I think I've made this joke on
22:18
the show before, but spirit, Halloween,
22:22
it always, like, it truly
22:25
is a spirit. And what I mean by that is,
22:27
if you have a
22:30
nondescript building in your town
22:33
and you don't really know what that building
22:35
houses, it's very likely that
22:38
one day that building will house a spirit
22:41
Halloween. Spirit Halloween
22:44
sets up shop in the husk of
22:47
nowhere is safe.
22:50
And that's kind of like what is happening with these hamams.
22:53
Like, they. They took and they
22:56
built these things, and they modeled them after these
22:59
bathhouses in many ways, but now
23:02
they have become pools and other
23:04
community spots. It's ironic.
23:09
Many of these serve as tourist spots,
23:13
especially those that are still in operation. Some of them are still
23:16
used as hamams, and they're like, to draw people in
23:18
to use the facilities. Some of these
23:21
are used in the Middle east for ritualistic
23:24
cleansing. As is noted with the advent
23:27
of modern indoor plumbing, there are
23:30
more private ways to clean yourself. It's
23:32
fallen off in the use in the area
23:35
of ritual purification. It's just not. It's
23:38
just not as practical. And you don't have
23:42
to expose your digit to get
23:44
ritually pure. You can get ritually pure at home and then
23:47
go do your worship and then go back.
23:52
It has also been argued
23:56
by some adherents to Islam that women
23:59
who use the hammams are engaging
24:02
in promiscuous behavior, even though
24:05
they attend the hammam with other women. The
24:08
fact of uncovering more than their face and eyes at
24:10
times and in public, because, remember, these are
24:13
public bathhouses, is viewed as
24:16
taboo amongst some islamic
24:19
groups.
24:21
As such, public bathing in a
24:24
public bathing house for women
24:27
is viewed with much scrutiny by
24:30
some. In other situations, it
24:33
has been insinuated that women who
24:36
visit the hammam too often
24:38
or more frequently do so as
24:41
they are in need of ritual cleansing after
24:44
sexual activity. Yo. In
24:47
other words, the more trip to the. The
24:50
public bathhouse and bathing sauna,
24:53
the more action you might be getting.
24:56
It's a theory.
24:59
How embarrassing. Uh, or not. I don't know.
25:02
It maybe. I think I have something broken with me.
25:05
Um, I wouldn't want people to know that I was.
25:08
I guess it's like you don't kiss and tell. Like, you
25:10
don't. You don't play hide the bacon and talk
25:13
about it. Like, you just, like,
25:17
sort yourself out, you know? I'm saying, like, just chill
25:20
it. Chill out. Maybe it should have taken a
25:23
lap in the cold bath before you got in there. Oh,
25:26
wait. They removed it. Good one.
25:29
I'm, um. The
25:31
more. Today, there are many
25:34
hamams in the west and throughout the world
25:37
that use similar practices manner
25:40
much akin to attending a spa.
25:43
In fact, most will take similar
25:46
approaches, but are modeled more after the
25:49
turkish bathhouses which spread in the
25:51
victorian era and were similar.
25:54
These spread due to their view
25:57
as being, um, somewhat more
26:00
sophisticated in nature.
26:03
The biggest addition, though,
26:06
is the addition of steam in vapor
26:08
rooms. Turkish baths were believed to
26:11
have healing benefits that spread
26:14
widely as a public place to
26:17
relax and heal.
26:20
These led into the modern day
26:23
spas of the west. I might have
26:26
you asking, what really
26:29
is the difference in between a
26:32
hamam and a spa? Other than
26:35
name like, what really is the difference? I'm glad
26:37
you asked.
26:44
The first main difference between a
26:47
hamam m and a spa is it is going.
26:50
A hamam is going to be relatively
26:53
dry or, sorry. A spa is going
26:55
to be relatively dry in comparison
26:58
to a hamam. What's going. That's going
27:01
to sound weird to hear. If you've ever been to a
27:04
spa, it's going to be weird to hear
27:07
because it's still very damp.
27:10
Like, it's moist is hick.
27:14
And here's what we got going on.
27:16
Hamam's humidity in
27:19
the room is usually around a
27:22
hundred. Um, it's Florida on
27:25
a rainy day. Everything's just wet. You know what I'm saying?
27:28
Everybody's just wet. Everybody's just
27:31
soaking wet. It's an
27:34
absolute swamp in this guy.
27:36
100% humidity. I would have
27:39
some. I would have swamp cracks so
27:42
hard you can, it would be like Shrek's
27:45
backyard in my backside.
27:47
But this high humidity allows them to
27:50
keep the rooms a bit cooler. They're at about 45
27:53
degrees celsius now. I must admit, I, uh,
27:56
I don't understand the world. So I have to look up
28:00
what 45 degrees celsius is in fahrenheit. It's
28:03
113. Um, that's still freaking hot as
28:06
heck. No, thanks. Uh, that's
28:09
hot. Likewise, the amount of water and the high
28:11
humidity help focus on the cleansing
28:14
aspects in the hamam process that are
28:16
important to its past. Saunas
28:19
are usually sitting more at the 70 to 90
28:22
degrees celsius. That's almost twice the temperature.
28:25
Yo, that's like 200 degree room.
28:27
Forget about it.
28:30
About ten to 20% humidity. It's
28:33
intended to make you sweat out your
28:35
pores.
28:40
So while saunas might not be
28:43
dry on a basic definition of the
28:46
word of being dry, they
28:49
are dry. It's comparably dry. When you start looking
28:52
at humidity in comparison to hamams,
28:56
the second biggest difference is the length of stay.
28:59
Saunas operate more on a schedule where you
29:02
make an appointment, you come in for your session, and you really can
29:05
only handle, you know, 1520 minutes of the
29:08
215
29:10
degree flip and heat room.
29:13
Bad news. I have no desire to be a part of
29:16
that. Um, but hamams,
29:19
at least in how they're designed, are made for you to come
29:22
in, take your time, spend as long as you want,
29:25
talk, hang out, socialize,
29:27
relax, feel rejuvenated, as
29:30
long as you do it within business hours.
29:32
Um, and the final key,
29:36
think of the hamam, um, like a gym. Like a 24
29:39
hours gym that you pay access to. Ten minutes or 5
29:41
hours you're paying to get in there and access that.
29:44
It's more about the process.
29:48
The final key difference is the aesthetic.
29:51
Spas usually differ in appearance, but
29:54
are, uh, often found to have that comfy, kind of
29:57
outdoorsy, cabin like,
30:00
shiplap thing going on. White
30:03
women love ship lap.
30:06
I didn't even know what Shiplap was
30:08
until I was told that it was neat.
30:11
Just, I feel like there was a
30:14
moment where everything was in shiplap. Like, when you went
30:17
into hobby lobby, everything was like, fake
30:20
shiplap and, like, cutesy flowers. I
30:23
don't know. Maybe it's just me.
30:26
Hamams, however, have a more palace y
30:28
vibe. It's like a palace.
30:32
And I have to admit, I thought
30:35
about going to a hammam in preparation for this
30:38
episode. But the problem is, the
30:41
closest one is in our beloved
30:44
Portland, Oregon. The
30:47
sheer annoyance of having to go to
30:49
Portland offsets any
30:52
perceived relaxation of
30:55
the process of going to a hamam.
31:00
Also, I don't like being nude
31:03
or half nude. And this is the other
31:06
thing about a hamam, is sometimes somebody
31:08
helps, quote, scrub you down. I don't want
31:11
anyone exfoliating me. Uh,
31:14
go exfoliate yourself.
31:17
I don't exfoliate.
31:20
Um, no,
31:24
just let the man. If
31:27
two men are in a room and one
31:30
is naked or both are naked, there's no
31:32
exfoliating. That should be happening. 0%
31:35
should be happening. No, thanks.
31:38
But you can consider this a brief
31:41
stop off at. At, uh,
31:43
the history of hamams and the history of
31:47
eastern bathing rituals. And that
31:49
brings us to the end of another episode
31:52
of privy. Thank you all for joining
31:55
us. Um, as always, we'd love for
31:58
you to follow us on social media. We're
32:01
cast on all social media. You can follow me, Hunter. I'm
32:04
owlet seven. Leave us a rating or review. Um,
32:07
the five star options are preferred, and, uh, if
32:10
you leave a rating, review on Apple Podcasts or
32:13
Spotify, uh, we will donate a dollar
32:16
for every rating left to the wounded warriors. Project
32:19
and living Waters International. And if you leave a written
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review, we'll bump that up to a couple bucks for each one of
32:25
those left. As a thank you for leaving us
32:28
a review, we give back to those charities
32:31
reminding you to keep pooping in the free world. Because that free
32:34
world has not always been free,
32:37
and it may not always be free. Um, and
32:40
as a reminder that there are some who still do not have clean
32:42
water, and pursuing clean water for all.
32:46
As always, we want to thank Kevin McCloud and
32:49
Poddington bear for the use of their music this week. You can check
32:51
their stuff out in the thing below. Uh,
32:54
send us an email privycastmail.com. We'd love to hear
32:57
from you. If you have episodes, suggestions, ideas, tell me what you
33:00
think about the video. I don't know if this is going to last. I went for
33:03
it. This might be one of those weird things where the video
33:06
pops up on YouTube and it's one and then it never
33:09
exists again. I don't know. We'll see. Um,
33:11
but I know that podcasts are heading this way.
33:15
This brings us to the end of another episode of privy. Thank you
33:18
guys so much for joining us. Uh, own your stank.
33:21
Keep hooping in the free world. Breathe more, push less.
33:24
And now, as always, you guys
33:27
get to see how I do this. Don't forget to flush.