# who needs a bath?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-bath/117166>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 3, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-bath/117166 "2002-07-03T05:38:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![phartizan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba8739/32.png) [@phartizan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phartizan)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-bath/117166/1 "2002-07-03T05:38:30Z")

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I can’t help think that in the millennia before human civilization, we couldn’t bathe much, & so we were used to the unwashed smell–the human pheromones.

And, since there was such a smell, mightn’t it have served a [purpose](http://www.macalester.edu/~psych/whathap/UBNRP/Smell/attraction.html)?

So, mightn’t people have been [attracted](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=112471&highlight=pheromones) by it? (And isn’t this still true of certain non-Western cultures?)

So who needs a bath, much less [undies](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=119449&highlight=apocrine+glands)?

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**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-bath/117166/2 "2002-07-03T05:50:43Z")

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I don’t think everyone necessarily found the smell pleasant. I once heard of a practice in ancient Rome.

When there was a gathering of a large throng of people, the smell could be unbearable. So there was a man (he probably had a name for his job and position) whose only job was to go around, perfuming the air with a censer. So I think people just tolerated the smell.

Plus, you know pheromones isn’t the only smell given off by an unwashed human body. There are also all the bacteria that get trapped in our pores. Yuck!  
🙂

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**Author:** ![phartizan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba8739/32.png) [@phartizan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phartizan)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-bath/117166/3 "2002-07-04T05:19:02Z")

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Plenty of Americans find disagreeable smells such as ripened European cheese, of Chinese fermented bean curd, or of the Southeast Asian durian fruit, but people who live in those places eat 'em up.

Maybe our dislike of the smells the bacteria produce is culturally influenced.

[sub]I’m just waiting for someone to say: “Smell my butt.”[/sub]