[giraffe_lady]

> These were instructions aimed at the rich nobility. Among serfs out in the villages, standards were even less refined.

Now that needs a citation, and embeds a whole bundle of assumptions in itself. It's necessarily true, because the rich decided what "refined" meant and defined it as what they did.

But primary record from many times and places show this sort of disgust going both ways. A lot of "uncivilized" behavior has been direct response to material conditions, and "civilized" or "refined" behavior was defined in opposition to those needs. The classic example is bathing: if you spend your time up to your waist in clay forming bricks, you're gonna need to wash it off every day. A clear way to signal that you don't do that is to not bathe.

From the perspective of wealthy city dwellers, I'm sure the habits of rural serfs were disgusting. On some specific habits I'm sure I would agree. But that they were generally, across time and place, more disgusting than the wealthy? mmm idk.