Throughout known and unknown human history, the concept of a good cleansing 'sweat' in the company of other humans of like mind or a couple of guiding spirits has juxtaposed itself with the concept of a nasty workmanlike 'SWEATING'.

The idea that if you just drag your fat arse outside and do a little work or run around the block (or village square, as the case may be)and the sweat will pour from your aching bod was and is apparently replusive to a certain sort. The idea that the sun alone will draw most of the poisons and other ick from your pores if you just stand still long enough in the right kind of weather goes against the grain of those who would gather in a shack with a pile of carefully selected rocks or a pile of carefully selected sticks that have a fire built on or under them until some idiot pours some carefully selected wawa on it to generate steam.

Sweaty lodges can be viewed as the precedent for gymnasiums and gyms, where people pay for the privilege of torturing their muscles and wallets under the tutelage of people whose entire reason for being is getting other people to pay them to invent new and better tortures that don't involve too much blood and a lot of sweat.

Meanwhile, as these elitist slugs sculpt and sweat themselves to a sort of pure nirvana of togetherness and heart failure, the housekeeping staff are sweating for minimum wage dealing with the grotty towels and the ring around the hot tub from all the cleansed, um, essences that oozed out in the steam room. In some cultures, it is the menfolk who get to crawl into their little inner sweatums while the womenfolk get to go about the necessary business of washing the other sweat out of their sweaters or buckskins or Wrangler Rodeo shirts or what have you.

It is said by many that the Romans practiced a sweaty ritual where they then anointed themselves (cheeky bastards) with an oil and then scraped the whole mess off with a specially designed curved stick (which was later discovered to have the astonishing property of returning to you if you threw it just right) before donning their bespoke robes and trundling down to the Senate to cause trouble, secure in their holy cleanliness (which was next to any number of godlinesses).

Said irritating custom has dribbled down to the current age, although the fluids are different and the scraping part has apparently been left off. Modern sweaty lodges involve strenous lying about on tables while truly sweaty personnages (for some reason, usually from Sweden or Bulgaria, countries whose sweat industries have inspired a series of surprising export opportunities. Call your broker now) pummel the flaccid muscles and what have you of the recumbent or supine victim. Then the victim trundles off to the sweaty room to sit about either towelled about the waste or untowelled and the waste on view for anyone stupid enough to bring their spectacles into a steam room.

Recent reemergence of interest in shamanistic and other ancient bits of witch doctery and opportunities for intelligent foreigners and indigenous peoples to empty the wallets of supposedly intelligent white folk who speak English (and German, to be fair)((and spread the blame equally)) has led to reams of volumes of research and fan mail on the issue of "cleansing rituals" among the "truly faithful" to the "old ways". The fact that some of these activities involve aqua vitae or peyote buttons is entirely beside the point.

In conclusion, it must be said (by somebody, sometime, mustn't it?) that while many religions demand a sort of cleansing ritual after nocturnal emissions and the monthlies (or any other sort of discharge, though not apparently any involving multinational corporations and chemicals that were drawn out of the ground and nature against their will... but that's another entry entirely. We return you to the previously interrupted sentence), the fun of getting naked with a bunch of the fellows and piling into a close room full of steam and birch switches on a daily or weekly basis has curiously been left out of their scriptures. So, while it may have gone on, in contrast to the more honest cultures (who seemingly have nothing to hide and aren't ashamed of it), it was frowned upon and not made a part of the sacred traditions. Nevermind that priests of all kinds have never been reluctant to say,"Do as I say, not as I do." I've heard rumours about the Urimm and the Thummim and certain friendly contests between camels in the Old East.