Hammams in America?
“Yala al Hammam.” My grandma chimed enthusiastically, indicating to us that it was time for our visit to Hay Agadir, the neighborhood public bathhouse to visit and perform a hammam: something she was looking forward to all week. We grabbed our bathrobes, a change of clothes, and we were on our way.
I vividly remember the first time I experienced a hammam: I followed my grandma, mom, and aunt into the women’s section and initially was overwhelmed by my surroundings; it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and I was quite shocked. Most Americans, myself included, are accustomed to the idea that showering and bathing are private vulnerable activities done within the home so standing in the middle of the entrance of three rooms full of naked women who were cleansing and exfoliating themselves out in public felt like a culture shock. I would come to learn soon enough that this was a sacred and habitual practice for Moroccans and Arabs alike and held a significant importance in Islamic culture and Middle Eastern society.
In Morocco, before the onset of modern plumbing, public bathhouses or hammams were the only means of bathing and were settings that promoted public hygiene and socialization. Despite the widespread adoption of modern plumbing systems, most Moroccan families still continue to make a weekly hammam trip as part of a long-held cultural and religious tradition. You might be wondering: What exactly is a hammam? A hammam is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It consists of a bathhouse with multiple rooms (dry and steamed) for cleaning the body and soul according to the traditional ritual. The word, “hammam”, originates from the Arabic word Hamma “heating up”. This practice has countless health benefits as it “stimulates circulation as well as detoxifies the body by sweating out impurities, ensuring a deep cleanse.” Entry typically costs about 20–50 dirhams (depending on the services you request) which is roughly $2 to $5 U.S. dollars — a bargain. During this hammam, individuals are able to not only deep clean and exfoliate their bodies but also simultaneously catch up with their families, socialize, and gossip with their neighbors. Hammams have gained an imperative cultural, social, and religious significance across the Middle East and there has been numerous attempts to replicate them in Western cultures but they fail to translate in a similar manner to their original purpose. The practice of Hammams fails to translate well in American culture as widespread popular social centers due to their failure to assimilate into the materialistic and secular American society that values profit and individualism over community and spiritual values.
In recent years, there has been a rise in Westernized hammams in Morocco that are suited for tourists and more interestingly Americanized hammams in the U.S. that are suited for wealthy Americans and elite Arabs. What I mean by elite Arabs are those who are looking to revisit a piece of their culture and can afford it at a hefty price — because most Arabs don’t want to pay an entry fee anywhere from $60 to $100+ U.S. dollars for something they’re familiar with but, a watered-down commercialized version of their cultural and religious practice. However, wealthy Americans yearn to experience this luxury “one of a kind” experience that is marketed to them as a traditional all-natural Moroccan Hammam or Turkish Bath, a concept they are most probably unfamiliar with but eager to try. Most Americans by nature are quickly influenced to spend their money on products or services that sell them anything with the phrases “all-natural” healing”, etc. Although public bathhouses and specifically hammams do exist in America, they serve a completely different purpose and are set up more like luxury spa experiences rather than their original intended purposes’, which reflect larger differences in Eastern and Western cultural values.
In America, hammams are sold as luxury ceremonial practices that heal the body and mind which is why they’re attractive to the wealthy consumer and are able to be commercialized to the extent they are. These Americanized hammams are often exquisite bathhouses with high ceilings and hundreds of colors and designs, sculptures, wells, infinity pools, masseuses, etc. In Morocco, the hammams are oftentimes basic and simple which goes to show the translation of this sacred practice in the U.S. was intended to simply generate profit and it reflects the consumer culture that overpowers America. Another feature of American hammams is that they offer more privacy — raised individual beds for massages for example — that allow for more personal space or convenience for visitors “who might be disturbed sharing floor space and rubbing elbows with other naked women.”
The concept of public bathhouses was originally derived from ancient Roman and Byzantine traditions due to the heavy emphasis that Greco-Roman societies placed on washing and cleanliness. These bathhouses were then adopted and transformed by Arab cultures in a way that conformed to Islamic customs even more, and they became a staple of Middle Eastern social and religious institutions. In the Middle East and North Africa, a region majorly dominated by Islam, the hammam originated as a place to get ready for prayer and reflected one of Islam’s main focuses: purification and community. They were conveniently located near mosques and indicated Islamic values of modesty due to their separation of genders. In Moroccan and Middle Eastern culture in general, showering with soap and water within your home is classified as surface-level cleaning, while in America this is the norm. The process of going through the different stages of heat, opening up pores, exfoliating skin, and ending with natural oil application is what is considered “clean” in Arab culture and that is exactly what a hammam is. The importance that ceremonial hammams hold in Islam are one of the reasons they are so popular in the Middle East and why they are not as common in secular American society. It’s quite difficult to translate a practice that almost entirely revolves around ideas of one religion that dominates a region into a society where those values (ex: modesty) are not as important.
This is one of the main reasons why it’s so hard to assimilate the practice of hammams in America: their historic religious significance and strong ties to Islam don’t translate well in the States, where there’s a clear divide between church and state and less of an emphasis placed on spiritual values unless its commercialized and to make a profit. Take the idea of the separation of genders and modesty which is what hammams were built on — the westernized hammams are often either co-ed or not as obscurely separated by gender as Moroccan hammams are and have no religious affiliation as a whole, which some may argue takes away from the ceremonies whole purpose. In Morocco, hammams are seen as ceremonial traditions to perform before prayer, after sexual intercourse, on wedding days, etc. which are all concepts that are ingrained in Islam (the idea of purification before monumental moments). This exact concept is hard to translate across borders that don’t value the same ideas or are not as spiritual countries and societies. A good example of this is Japanese Sentos which are very similar to Arabian bathhouses but have Buddhist ideas and practices infused into them and hold significance in Japanese culture due to their religious and social importance which is why hammams are able to translate so well but not in America.
