In Pompeii, Victorian London, and modern times, purchasing premade food or meals is a good way to save time. (And is very useful if you don't have access to foodstuffs or cooking space at a specific mealtime.)
Additionally, historically restaurants and food stalls (in cities) or separate kitchen buildings (on country estates) help to minimize the risk of house fires.
A lot of people were too poor, and their homes too small, to have a kitchen. This actually remains true in some countries today -- Indian cities are often like that -- so people rely on street food.
Up until fairly recently (past 50 yrs), many houses would not have running water or indoor plumbing. (In some places this is true, and you can add electricity to the list.)
It's cheaper to build the houses...and still reduces damage from leaky pipes and electrical fires.
Funnily enough, the limiting factors for building height are 1) how high can it go without collapsing and 2) how to get water up and sewage/trash down. (For large cities, add 'how to safely dispose of waste once it's been collected.')
We greatly underestimate the power of utilities...
>> Up until fairly recently (past 50 yrs), many houses would not have running water or indoor plumbing. (In some places this is true, and you can add electricity to the list.) <<
I'm pretty sure our public bathroom started as a bedroom, given its size. The house is over a hundred years old.
Some reservations still don't have full utilities.
Most of India still doesn't have toilets, which is a problem. :/
I've always been intrigued by the history of utilities. It was middens that started agriculture, after all.
I also like to point out that the last time religion overtook civilization on a wide scale, nobody in Europe had running water for 500 years. >_
>>I've always been intrigued by the history of utilities.<<
If you ever read up on hazmat disposal in Dickens-era London, it basically reads like a cheesy zombie flick, minus the walking corpses.
They ran out of places to bury folks, had what were essentially 'rent by the hour' graves marketed as permanent graves, and it best not to think of what oozed up from the cobblestones or down the river.
(They also had gentrification, preachy-useless welfare, and horribly overcrowded tenements. Ah, civilization.)
If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley is interesting too. And Ruth Goodman wrote some good books.
History is fun! Did you know: - women's skirts are the reason the closet was invented - early pipes had problems with wildlife - and you were lucky if live eels were the worst of it - in the 1800s firefighters once mistook the Northern Lights (in London) for a fire - in 1349 the King Edward was informed that they couldn't combat the plague by cleaning the streets...because the street cleaners had all died of the plague - that some people used to think that indoor plumbing was 'for women and little kids' -similarly, carriages were for women and old folks - real men rode horses. (Also, classism, poor folks would walk.)
>>Some reservations still don't have full utilities.
Most of India still doesn't have toilets, which is a problem. :/ <<
I occasionally wonder why this doesn't come up more often in media. I know different toileting systems/bathroom habits are an issue in cross-cultural stuff sometimes.
And plumbing/toilets/sleeping habits are often considered blatantly obvious, so they don't get discussed until you run into a problem facefirst.
>>I also like to point out that the last time religion overtook civilization on a wide scale...<<
My inner devil's advocate will point out that the religious overtaking was roughly concurrent with a societal collapse - and people search for meaning at the end of the world.
(Ironically, the Black Death ended the age of religious dominance while simultaneously freeing up resources that helped power the Rennesance.)
Basically, correlation =/= causation. It could be true, but it could also be one of many other things...
...either way, it would probably be good if everyone knew how to dispose of waste safely when plumbing isn't available. Life is ... kinda wierd and unpredictable sometimes.
Times change, people don't... In any urban area, in any civilisation, there are always fast food joints of some description, and there will always be so.
Fast food was probably invented not long after cities were. By the time the walls of Ur were raised, there were people selling things like kibbe and falafel, shish kebab, and bowls of grain topped with whatever meat or vegetables they could get. All of which are still available.
Also Ostia just outside Rome (it was Rome's port until it silted up and unlike Pompeii it simply became abandoned until rediscovered). We visited some years back and were amused by the fast food bar with its pictorial menu on the wall
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siliconshaman - (no subject)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-10 04:55 am (UTC)Additionally, historically restaurants and food stalls (in cities) or separate kitchen buildings (on country estates) help to minimize the risk of house fires.
Yes ...
Date: 2021-01-10 06:52 am (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2021-01-10 08:03 pm (UTC)It's cheaper to build the houses...and still reduces damage from leaky pipes and electrical fires.
Funnily enough, the limiting factors for building height are 1) how high can it go without collapsing and 2) how to get water up and sewage/trash down. (For large cities, add 'how to safely dispose of waste once it's been collected.')
We greatly underestimate the power of utilities...
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2021-01-10 08:16 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure our public bathroom started as a bedroom, given its size. The house is over a hundred years old.
Some reservations still don't have full utilities.
Most of India still doesn't have toilets, which is a problem. :/
I've always been intrigued by the history of utilities. It was middens that started agriculture, after all.
I also like to point out that the last time religion overtook civilization on a wide scale, nobody in Europe had running water for 500 years. >_
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2021-01-10 09:43 pm (UTC)If you ever read up on hazmat disposal in Dickens-era London, it basically reads like a cheesy zombie flick, minus the walking corpses.
They ran out of places to bury folks, had what were essentially 'rent by the hour' graves marketed as permanent graves, and it best not to think of what oozed up from the cobblestones or down the river.
(They also had gentrification, preachy-useless welfare, and horribly overcrowded tenements. Ah, civilization.)
If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley is interesting too. And Ruth Goodman wrote some good books.
History is fun! Did you know:
- women's skirts are the reason the closet was invented
- early pipes had problems with wildlife - and you were lucky if live eels were the worst of it
- in the 1800s firefighters once mistook the Northern Lights (in London) for a fire
- in 1349 the King Edward was informed that they couldn't combat the plague by cleaning the streets...because the street cleaners had all died of the plague
- that some people used to think that indoor plumbing was 'for women and little kids'
-similarly, carriages were for women and old folks - real men rode horses. (Also, classism, poor folks would walk.)
>>Some reservations still don't have full utilities.
Most of India still doesn't have toilets, which is a problem. :/ <<
I occasionally wonder why this doesn't come up more often in media. I know different toileting systems/bathroom habits are an issue in cross-cultural stuff sometimes.
And plumbing/toilets/sleeping habits are often considered blatantly obvious, so they don't get discussed until you run into a problem facefirst.
>>I also like to point out that the last time religion overtook civilization on a wide scale...<<
My inner devil's advocate will point out that the religious overtaking was roughly concurrent with a societal collapse - and people search for meaning at the end of the world.
(Ironically, the Black Death ended the age of religious dominance while simultaneously freeing up resources that helped power the Rennesance.)
Basically, correlation =/= causation. It could be true, but it could also be one of many other things...
...either way, it would probably be good if everyone knew how to dispose of waste safely when plumbing isn't available. Life is ... kinda wierd and unpredictable sometimes.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-10 11:05 am (UTC)Times change, people don't... In any urban area, in any civilisation, there are always fast food joints of some description, and there will always be so.
Yes ...
Date: 2021-01-10 11:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-10 12:08 pm (UTC)Wow!
Date: 2021-01-11 04:56 am (UTC)