WHAT WAS HYGIENE LIKE FOR THE AZTECS?
The Aztecs were a collective of Mesoamericans, who thrived from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
Aztec hygiene practices reflected earlier ancient cultural traditions from their Olmec, Mayan, and Toltec predecessors.
Thus, continuing a dedication to cleanliness and purity.
The Aztec people, were aware of how important water was to all aspects of life.
This contributed to the development of canal systems, in the empire’s major cities.
Canals that brought fresh water for personal use, were lined with plaster, and had accompanying networks, to remove human waste and other detritus.
Canals and aqueducts effectively kept fresh and salt water, separate, essential for both individual use and irrigation purposes.
Another benefit of the extensive water system in Aztec cities, was the inclusion of baths in private homes.
While most Aztecs took cold baths, they also participated in steam baths for ritual purposes, in a ‘temazcal’
An Aztec ‘temazcal’ was a steam lodge – an enclosure with no windows, that featured a heated floor, dashed with cold water.
This was used for purification of the body, either after physical conflict to aid in healing, or cure an illness.
Temazcalteci, a deity whose image was kept on display nearby, protected the entrance to the temazcal, overseeing the ritual of people ridding themselves of physical, and spiritual grime.
Aztecs didn’t have soap in the modern sense of the word, but they did embrace the cleansing properties of numerous plants.
Roots and fruit from the copalxocotl, the “soap tree,” produced a lather that could be used to clean the body, and clothing.
During the month of Atemotzli – the 16th month of the solar calendar – the general population often avoided bathing as a sign of sacrifice and penance.
Similarly, women didn’t wash their faces, while the men were away fighting.
The value of cleanliness was practical, and ritualistic.
Sacrificial prisoners were even given a bath, before they met their end.
Aztecs also applied deodorants to keep body odour away, using ingredients like copal gum, amber oil, and balsam oil.
To overcome “the fetid odour of the infirm,” patients were anointed with a perfume made of flowers, pine needles and fruit.
The Aztec burned incense as well, especially priests during religious rituals.
Remaining clean and pure, was the ideal way to find a husband, according to the ‘Florentine Codex’.
Written by a monk in the 16th Century, the Codex, is one of the few firsthand accounts, of Aztec society, and their traditions.
Below, is an excerpt, for a young girl to find a husband…..
“In the morning, wash your face, wash your hands,
clean your mouth.
Never make up your face nor paint it; never put red
on your mouth to look beautiful.
Make-up and paint are things that light women use
– shameless creatures.
If you want your husband to love you, dress well,
wash yourself, and wash your clothes”
Courtesans – women who dressed and groomed themselves in order to please men, used makeup and perfumes.
These included axin, which gave her a dazzling complexion.
Sometimes, being a loose, lost woman, they would also put on rouge.
‘Ladies of the night’ dyed their teeth red, or black, to distinguish themselves from other women.
Aztec healers were trained in using herbal remedies to treat everything from headaches and coughs, to low grade infections.
Juice from the nopal cactus fruit, was used to reduce swelling, and bark from the ylin tree was mixed with wax, egg, and other herbs to treat inflammation and fever.
Healers used hair to suture cuts and scrapes.
Broken bones were treated with the gum of the ocozotl tree, resin and feathers.
The limb was placed between splints of wood, and tied tightly with cord.
Then the limb and the splints together, were encased in a second covering of rubber-like gum.
As part of maintaining cleanliness, Aztecs used salt and urine to clean their teeth.
Other materials like ashes, honey, roots and barks, were also used.
To keep their breath fresh, Aztec women were known to chew gum, thought to be a mixture from the sapodilla tree, and bitumen.
As a remedy to toothaches and infection, Aztecs could rub charcoal on their teeth but, if the tooth problem got too advanced, removing it was a necessity.
Dentists could pull a tooth, but not before applying a mixture of vinegar and snake venom.
This made for a relatively painless tooth removal, after which a mixture of herbs was applied to protect and cure the open wound.
Aztec dentists also filed teeth down, filled cavities, and applied jewels to incisors.
Hairstyles for men in the Aztec empire varied significantly, with priests keeping their hair long, often matted with soot.
Common men, wore their hair short.
Establishments like barbers’ where men could go to have their hair washed and shaved, were available.
Women could dye their own hair, using black mud, or a green herb called xiuhquilitl, that produced a purple shine to the hair.
Some women shaved their heads completely, while older females, particularly mothers, wore their hair long, and pulled back with a cord.
Women did wear perfume, presumably from flowers, pine needles and fruit.
For both men and women, a treatment for dandruff, would mean cleaning the hair with urine, while heartily scrubbing with ground avocado pits.
This would bring colour back to one’s locks.
Clay could be used after the hair was treated, to bring colour and shine back to one’s locks.
In the event of scabies, men and women had their heads shaved and, again, were doused in urine.
Herbal mixtures of pinewood, cottonseed, and avocado was then added to eliminate the pests.
The Aztecs ate two meals a day, breakfast and an afternoon meal.
For upper-class members of society, a feast in the evenings could lead to a night full of food, entertainment, and excess.
Meals always started, and ended, with clean hands.
