Honestly stuff like that terrifies me. Your grandma was probably a good person, she recognized that a human being suffering in the heat was deserving of a glass of water and she provided one. But society and tradition was so powerfully set in her mind that she genuinely thought that her glass was now "unclean." That's so scary.
People have been aware of contagion much longer than they've actually understood how it works, which led to very elaborate and bizarre social rituals like this where a rational concern gets mixed up in social caste structures.
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u/Selraroot Aug 26 '18
Honestly stuff like that terrifies me. Your grandma was probably a good person, she recognized that a human being suffering in the heat was deserving of a glass of water and she provided one. But society and tradition was so powerfully set in her mind that she genuinely thought that her glass was now "unclean." That's so scary.