Our reaction to dirt very much depends on our upbringing, social class, cultural context, and personal experiences. Attitudes toward hygiene have also shifted back and forth during different time periods. Before the eighteenth century, neither parents nor doctors in the Western world cared much about personal hygiene; in fact, many people believed dirt protected children against disease. In France, for example, washing a child’s head was even believed to hurt his intelligence, and leaving a layer of dirt was believed to protect against injury. In Sweden a couple of hundred years ago, it was
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