Human Waste

Social Stigma

Human waste has been regarded cross-culturally as a prototypical offensive substance. Various social theories have been offered for the prevalence of aversion to human waste across cultures. Some theories categorize the disgust associated with waste as an evolutionary response to guard against disease, while others hold that the aversion to human waste reflects disgust at the “animalness” of the act and product of defecation. Freudian theories suggest that the disgust toward human waste originates from the emotional trauma of the toilet training experience. Various cleansing rituals exist to separate human waste from daily life and especially from coming into contact with food. Across many cultures, social stigma is often attached to groups that handle human waste, most notably night soil collectors throughout east Asia and untouchables in south Asia.

Early History of Human Waste Disposal

Archaeological remains and archival documents of ancient cities illustrate that organized systems of human waste removal have existed for millennia. Dating back to 2500 B.C.E., excavation from the Indus basin and Mesopotamia reveal highly developed brick structures where waste from each house was directed into drains. Significant social variations in defecation practices also exist throughout history. Defecation has been both a solitary and a social activity. While most Western-style bathrooms in the 21st century contain stalls to provide privacy, the design of Roman bathrooms displays a more social setting for defecation. Excavations of public latrines in the city of Ostia indicate that toilet seats were lined up closely next to one another, forming a square with no barrier between users.

While human waste has typically been regarded to some extent as offensive, historically, both urine and feces have also been considered a useful resource. In large agrarian societies such as China and India, human waste was often collected in towns and cities to be transformed into fertilizers for the countryside through what was known as night soil collection. Human feces, collected with or without urine, was placed outside buildings to be picked up and transported by night soil collectors to the countryside, where it was processed and used as fertilizer. It is difficult to tell how far back the use of human manure extends in history, particularly because the Chinese word for “manure” (one of the most prominent regions practicing night soil collection), fen, does not distinguish between human and animal sources. Agricultural manuals in China dating from the 12th century offer a variety of techniques for the conversion of waste to fertilizer, [Page 401]demonstrating the awareness that human waste needed to be processed and purified before it could be applied to agricultural crops. The composting and conversion of human excreta into fertilizer to sustain agricultural production was practiced widely throughout east Asia, in France, and selectively in North America in the mid-19th century. Urine, often regarded as having disinfectant properties, was also applied widely as a pesticide, cleaning agent, and sterilizer. It was also not uncommon in 15th-century France to use urine for the cleansing of draperies and clothes.

...