I live in a humid climate now, so they wouldn’t work.

But when I was growing up I lived in the desert - hot summer days could reach 60C/140F and we used primitive evaporative cooling to stay comfortable. Wet towel your your head, fine mist sprays, etc. It was extremely effective. We also had reflective insulation on our house, so the indoor temperature wasn’t even remotely as close to the outdoor temperature… but it certainly would have been uncomfortable without evaporative cooling.