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Cited by 169History of Science and MedicineHistory of Emotions ResearchHistory of Medicine and Tropical Health

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 43 of the 44 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Dirt, disgust and disease: a natural history of hygiene

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Curtis, Valerie A·2007·Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
DOI 10.1136/jech.2007.062380PMC PMC2652987
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Abstract

Hygiene has been studied from multiple perspectives, including that of history. I define hygiene as the set of behaviours that animals, including humans, use to avoid infection. I argue that it has an ancient evolutionary history, and that most animals exhibit such behaviours because they were adaptive. In humans, the avoidance of infectious threats is motivated by the emotion of disgust. Intuition about hygiene, dirt and disease can be found underlying belief about health and disease throughout history. Purification ritual, miasma, contagion, zymotic and germ theories of disease are ideas that spread through society because they are intuitively attractive, because they are supported by evidence either from direct experience or from authoritative report and because they are consistent with existing beliefs. In contrast to much historical and anthropological assertion, I argue that hygiene behaviour and disgust predate culture and so cannot fully be explained as its product. The history of ideas about disease thus is neither entirely socially constructed nor an “heroic progress” of scientists leading the ignorant into the light. As an animal behaviour the proper domain of hygiene is biology, and without this perspective attempts at explanation are incomplete. The approaches of biological anthropology have much to offer the practice of cultural history.

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  1. 1997, J Hist Med, 52, 7
  2. Hölldobbler B, Wilson EO. The ants. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
  3. 1983, Am Bee J, 123, 511
  4. 2003, Wildlife Soc Bull, 31, 117
  5. 1971, Nature, 5321, 538
  6. Burkert W. Greek religion. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.
  7. Aunger R. The Electric meme. New York: The Free Press, 2002.
  8. Parker R. Miasma: pollution and purity in early Greek religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
  9. Hippocrates. Hippocratic writings. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
  10. 1985, Victorian Stud, 28, 381
  11. 1997, J Hist Med, 52, 114
  12. 1994, Cahiers Santé, 4, 335

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Metadata

Authors
Curtis, V. A.
Venue
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2007-07-13
Volume
61
Issue
8
Pages
660-664
ISSN
  • 0141-7681 (ISSN-L)
  • 0143-005X
  • 1470-2738
DOI
10.1136/jech.2007.062380
PMC
PMC2652987
OpenAlex
W2010209884
Cited by
169
References
44
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 6
FWCI
2.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Unilever
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › History of Science and Medicine
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › History of Emotions Research
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › History of Medicine and Tropical Health
Keywords
hygiene, disgust, dirt, disease, infection avoidance, animal behavior, germ theory, miasma theory, contagion theory, purification rituals, history of medicine, cultural history, physical anthropology, social construction of illness
MeSH terms
Animals, Attitude to Health, Behavior, Animal, Culture, Emotions, Humans, Hygiene, Parasitology, Public Health, Health Behavior

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