A Sociological History of Excretory Experience: Defecatory Manners and Toiletry TechnologiesThis study illustrates how it was the shifting relationships between the aristocracy, bourgeoisie and working classes over several centuries which were greatly responsible for the ways in which we defecate and view human waste in the 21st century. The focus of the book is on the historical development of these factors in Western Europe over the modern period: the nature of excreta; human body's defectatory capacities; acceptable/unacceptable fashions in which defecation can be carried out; and the way in which faeces are disposed of. This final aspect includes the construction of water-based sewer systems and the development of water closets in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These scientific and technological changes were intimately related to changes in the nature of social life, by antagonistic relations between classes at the economic, political and cultural levels. |
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anal character aspects attitudes bodily practices bourgeois body bourgeois faecal habitus bourgeois habitus bourgeoisie capitalist modernity cesspools characteristic characterology collective class contemporary context coprophilia Corbin cosmology crises cultural defecation defecatory practices deriving dirt dirty disgust dispositions distinction dominant class dominant habitus Douglas dry conservancy dwelling Elias elite evaluations of excreta example excremental excreta and excretion excretory capacities excretory disposal excretory practices factors faecal odours faeces filth form of disposal forms of excretory Freud human body imperatives increasing levels increasingly involved Knossos later feudal later nineteenth century latrines levels of regulation London Luther materials means of disposal means of excretory medieval period mode of excretion modern mode nature neo-Freudian Norbert Elias olfactory onwards phenomena population density privy produced Rabelais relatively Renaissance sewer systems smell social structural society sociology strata Swift symbolic and practical symbolic capital symbolic-classificatory schema urban environment valorised Vigarello wastes water closet water-based sewer