My first thoughts about the Middle Ages is I presume most doctors of that time didn’t understand the concept of bacterial and viral infections. Wasn’t this when the Black Plague killed all those Europeans. and kept killing until it was understood that rat feces were causing infections?
I may be confusing this with the Hanta virus.
Even still, scores of people died before the threat was fully over.
Look and wonder no more
https://shop.catholic.com/how-the-catholic-church-built-western-civilization/
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
“Today, some historians suggest that the real trouble for women came with the cultural changes of the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries..”
More likely the Reformation and the dissolving of monasteries played a role because the women within those had a large degree of independence both financial and personal.
Another myth is that people of that era were always dirty. It is true they hygiene was limited compared to now but they knew to keep their hands and faces clean. Bathing was not unknown but having access to clean water for bathing could be difficult.
When I see dates listed as BCE and CE, I stop reading.
Another myth is people walked around with their faces dirty.
You see that in westerns and period drama movies starting in the 1960’s made in europe where everyone looked dirty. Someone I think would say to another “you got dirt on your face”.
They would say thanks and would wash it off.
Interesting article. I do need to know if King Joe Biden lied to his people about his teachers being drafted to play sports, about the economy and the Vandals being peaceful? 🤓
“While the church deemed physical intimacy as only acceptable for procreation.”
Another myth.
The church considered sex an important foundation of the intimacy of marriage. Men were encouraged to make sex pleasing for their wives.
THAT ship sailed for sure. With recent and more accurate DNA information available, looking only at contemporay sources and the material remains of past groups is going to produce incomplete and inaccurate data.
Check out 'Survive the Jive' ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VKSmYoWFZc
For persons who survived to at least age 18, the average age of death for women was around 43 years, and the average age of death for men was around 48.
The aristocracy lived longer, but even most Kings and Princes died before age 60.
Less than 10% of the adult population lived past age 70.
Average European and North American life span did not begin to increase until the first decade of the 1800s.