الجسد والعناية الصحية به في رحاب حضارات الماء: قراءة أنثروبولوجية لعادات الاغتسال في التراث المتوسطي

Abstract

Beyond its vital importance, water plays a major role in the rituals of body maintenance. From an anthropological point of view, as well as religious and moral, water means fertility, beauty, cleanliness and purification. Although a collective “water-phobia” existed during the medieval times, it did not prevent the Hammam or steam bathing tradition from surviving in the Mediterranean basin. The practice was known since antiquity when the Greek and Roman civilizations idealized the human body. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Hammam remained a temple of spirituality and aesthetics thanks to the moors who gave it a style and an architecture which is appreciated in North Africa up until today.