Sweat
Description
SWEAT BATHING HAS BEEN as common to people as the making of bread and the squeezing of the grape. Numerous cultures through history have discovered that the sweat bath, in one form or another, enlivens both body and spirit. Although sweat bathing has only recently entered America's contemporary life, it thrived here long before Columbus in the form of sweat lodges and temescals.
Imagine literally sweating yourself around the world, as Mikkel Aaland did-lying on a marble slab in a Turkish hammam enduring a delicious pummeling by a fierce masseur or basking in the profound tranquility of a mushi-buro in Kyoto. Aaland spent three years on his pilgrimage sweating with people in far parts of the world-in the ancient smoke saunas (savusaunas) of rural Finland, boisterous banias in Russia, neighborly temescals in a Mexican village, and a Navajo sweat lodge in the Southwest.
Aaland brought back a rich store of photographs and experience from his world travels. His book is a revelation. "Sweat is beautiful," he declares. They used to say that only horses sweat, that men perspire and women glow, thereby suggesting that sweating is undesirable and should be suppressed by anti-perspirants.
Aaland touches a sensitive nerve in the gentile and those of us who don't sweat for a living. He explains that if we don't sweat regularly, we deprive ourselves of a vital bodily function. The skin is our body's largest and most complex organ and plays an important role in our fitness.
Aaland has a vision of public saunas appearing on street corners throughout America, trail sweats glowing in mountain campsites, sweat baths in schools, skyscrapers and factories-a vision of people everywhere basking in the healthful warmth and camaraderie of a sweat bath.
Sweat bathing, undoubtedly, is more important now in these sedentary times than ever before, in the same sense that so many of us have turned to jogging, tennis and jumping rope to keep our bodies alive.
This is the eBook edition of the original book published by Capra Press in 1978. This edition includes minor edits and additional color images.
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Content
Chapter 1: Sweat Bathing and the Body
Sweating
Skin
Heating and Cooling the Inner Body
Positive Effects of Negative Ions
Spirits of the Sweat Bath: Born of Fire
Social Sweating
Chapter 2: Mediterranean Baths
Early Greek and Roman Baths
Mass Bathing: The Roman BaInea and Thermae
Cathedrals Of Flesh
The Islamic Hammam is Born
Spreader Of Warmth
Ginn, The Spirit Of The Hammam
Women And The Hammam
Christians, Jews, and the Hammam
The Hammam's Medicinal Properties
The Decline of the Hammam
The "Turkish Bath" Visits Europe and America
In America
Turkish Baths Today
Private Sweat Bathing Cubicles
Bathing in Medieval Europe
Chapter 3: The Finnish Sauna
History of the Nordic Bath
Origin Of The Sauna
Foreign interest
Sweden And Norway
No Luxury for Finns
Spiritual Significance
Birth Sauna
19th Century
Finnish Nationalism
The Kalevala
Artists And Sauna
Industrialization
Sauna Revival
Keeping Cool on a Hot Island
Sauna in Europe
Sauna in Japan
The Sauna in America
Family Saunas in the San Francisco Bay Area
Chapter Four: The Russian Bania
History of the Great Russian Bath
Bannik, the Spirit of the Bania
The Birth Bania
The Wedding Bania
The Death Bania
Health and the Bania
The Bania after the Russian Revolution
The Spreading Influence of the Russian Steam Bath
The Irish Way
Tribal Africa
Chapter 5: The Japanese Mushi-Buro
History of Japanese Baths
Chapter Six: The Native American Sweat Lodge
Joining Running Foot in a Navajo Sweat Lodge
A Guest at an Oglala Sun Dance Ceremony
History of Sweat Lodges
Early Chronicles
Cultural Revival
Hot Rock Sweat Lodge
Womb Of Mother Earth
When Sweat Lodge Was Human
Peyote And Sacred Myths
Direct Fire Sweat Lodge
Sweating Without a Sweat Lodge
Origin of the Temescal
The Temescal Today
The Sweat Lodge Joins the Modern World
Chapter 7
Build Your Own Sweat Bath
Skills Required
Building a Sauna
Choosing a Sauna Stove: Wood, Gas, or Electric?
Other Considerations
Useful Vocabulary
The Stove, Heart of the Sauna
The Proper Rocks
Testing the Rocks
The Amount and Size of the Rocks
How Hot Should the Rocks Be?
Three Types of Wood-Burning Kiuas
Savusauna Kiuas
Kastor's Savusauna Stove
Smoke-Free, Heat Storage Stove
Making a Heat Storage Wood-Burning Stove
The Smoke-Free, Continuous Burning Stove
A Home-Made, Smoke-Free, Continuous-Burning Kiuas
What Type of Wood Should You Use?
Gas Heaters
Pre-fab Sauna Room
Build a Sauna Room
Size
Wood Panelling
Exterior Finish
Walls of the Savusauna
Windows
Lighting
Benches
Seat Boards
Head Rests and Foot Rests
Floor Duckboards
The Sauna Door
Insulation
The Floor
Creating Good Climate
Ventilation
Temperature
Heat Radiation
Humidity
Building a Trail Sweat
The Tent Sauna
Using the Sauna or other Sweat Bath
Bathing implements
Sweat Spices
Make a Birch Vihta
Appendix
Precautions
Acclimatization
Illustration Credits
Text Credits
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Author Contact Information
