A Sociological History of Excretory Experience

Inglis (sociology, U. of Aberdeen, UK) explores our present feelings of shame, secrecy, disgust, and guilt surrounding the process of excreta and excretion in this fascinating study on one of our society's most unmentionable topics. The sociological approach is cast in a framework suggested by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, described in an initial chapter. Inglis then turns to excretory history, considering at length the faecal mores of classical antiquity; the creation of the bourgeois faecal habitus, or private spaces, in the Middle Ages (drawing on the work of Norbert Elias); the creation of large-scale water- based sewer systems in the 19th century and their relation to various crises people suffered that provoked them to keep the excretory mores of earlier times; and the resultant creation of the small private spaces used today.