While
bearing the risk of at the least repeating myself and at the worst of clinging
onto a disturbing subject and coming out as a disturbed guy, I want to discuss
the concepts of faecophilic and faecophobic cultures in some more
detail, if only to have it in writing for myself. So in short, this post is
more about me myself trying to clarify and get my head around some concepts
more than telling about my stay here, but bear with me! Or actually, don’t if you
don’t want to and go enjoy the weather! Writing things down sometimes does
help. One more thing: no promises, but there might be more of this stuff…
Why publish
it then? At least because at one point I will have to present it all in a
format that not only can be published but might with some fantasy pass for
academic writing, and it is good exercise to write under the threat that
someone might read this. And then there’s the best argument of all: Why not?
---
So, a general division of the world’s
cultures into two groups with regard to their attitude towards human excreta can
be proposed. In this very
simplifying but as a concept or a tool for thinking useful continuum two
opposite groups are introduced: the faecophilics and the faecophobics.
On the one
hand, faecophilic cultures are presented as ones that do not have any serious
cultural obstacles (such as values and norms) on handling human waste. These
are common namely in the densely populated agricultural areas of East and
Southeast Asia, for instance in China and Vietnam. Where productive
agricultural land has for a long time been a relatively scarce resource because
of the dense population, people have not been able to move between farming
areas and have through generations been forced to stay in contact with their
own waste and create systems of managing human waste along with all other
garbage right there, on site. With time, the function of human excreta as a
nutritious fertilizer has been recognized
and it has become to be seen as a resource instead of something that should
be gotten rid of. Faecophilics believe in simply burying their excreta and in
the soil as a tool in treating the waste. They also consider reuse of excreta
to be a part of the natural cycle of nutrients.
On the
other hand, faecophobic cultures are ones in which the only thing seen as
appropriate in these issues is to avoid all contact with human waste. Such
attitudes have often been developed in areas where competition for land has not
been as intensive and shifting your farm from one place to another or
semi-nomadic lifestyles have been possible or even the best option. The mobile
lifestyle has facilitated a system of waste disposal where human excreta and
other waste is simply left behind as human activity moves to another location.
The traditional lifestyle meant that there was no pressing need to recycle
wastes and nature carried the responsibility of waste treatment. Faecophobic
cultures have been found to be
dominant in Sub-Saharan Africa, among some other regions, which can set some
obstacles on the introduction of ecological sanitation systems. Faecophobics
react more to the idea of
contamination (that’s disgust) than the actual risk of contamination, which has
been argued to be only partly rational. They also react mostly to the
appearance of excreta, as studies show that treated excreta does not create the
same reactions.
Of course, as with everything in culture, religion
plays a role in both cases. Whereas I've understood that there is next to no
mention of excreta or the reuse of it in the bible, it is in Hinduism and Islam
seen as simply dirty stuff, no exceptions allowed. In the opposite corner we
find the Buddhists, whose general belief in reincarnation directly promotes the
reuse of everything.
Of course,
as can be stated for most theoretical choices between ‘this or that’, most
people and cultures of the world take a position somewhere along the phobic-philic-continuum, not at either of the extremes. Moreover, that stance is not
necessarily fixed and can probably be altered. For instance, it can be said the
western faecophobic cultures (that’s us), have developed their overtly negative
attitude towards poo and pee only as technological development has facilitated
our flush-and-forget or toilets (Out of sight, out of mind...) and created a
certain alienation from nature. As excreta have been moved away from our
everyday lives by new, convenient and efficient technology, it has become seen
as something hidden, disgusting and dangerous. Technology has altered people’s
attitudes instead of the other way around.
Can I
conclude from this that communities
with basically faecophobic approaches to sanitation can, through education,
awareness-raising and provision of the right technology, be encouraged to take a more faecophilic attitude, thereby
facilitating the introduction of more ecological and more sustainable
sanitation solutions? I believe I can.
And of course
the obvious big question goes: Which ones are the sick ones? The poll is still
there on the right side, answer if you dare!
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