Changing Concepts of Dirt and Cleanliness

Abstract

In considering the various features of the environment which contributed to the unusual pattern of English and Japanese mortality, a central thread running through all of them has been the attitude towards dirt. Analyses of drink, bodily excrement, rubbish in the environment, the house, clothing and bodily hygiene have all demonstrated the way in which perceptions of dirt and efforts to keep certain things clean had dramatic effects on health in England and Japan. Yet how are we to explain what appears to be an unusual attitude towards dirt and the considerable effort that was made to eliminate it, particularly in Japan, but also in England?