Several notes to follow up Tim's comments.
1) Historical Archaeology, Volume 34(1)(2000) is entirely devoted to the
excavation of privies and does include discussions of social mores
concerning same.
2) The site we surveyed in Dubuque had a standing (and still occasionally
used!)privy located less than 10 m from the house. The land owner - who has
lived there since the 1940's - says the privy was there when his family
moved to the property.
3) A history professor of mine once quoted from a French publication that
describes the treatment of excrement throughout French history. I don't
remember the title, but the translation was basically a four-letter word!
People may not talk about it in formal settings, but it seems we all are
curious about such a fundamental process.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Mancl [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 2:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Indoor privies
To some extent, the current discussion of privies has been marked
by ahistorical interpretations. The historical literature suggests the
likelihood of privies being moved closer to the house during the mid to
late nineteenth century, with woodsheds, or other "discreet" areas, or
additions at the rear of the house being used for this purpose. During the
1880s, and more likely after 1890, the privies should be seen to disappear
or to again move away from the house. The rate of diffusion of information
regarding "proper" sanitary practice, and one's own acceptance and
interpretation of this information, together with conceptions of
convenience, would influence this timing. Unfortunately, this pattern is
unclear, having been drawn from architectural, public health, plumbing, and
farming journals and books, and other proscriptive literature. Except for
the material evidence that has been left us, individual homeowners are
relatively silent on the issue. As someone who continues to try to
understand the factors that motivated changes in sanitary practices and
waste handling, it is my hope that archaeology could and will be used to
shed light on this subject.
My greatest concern with the recent discussion is that, with a few
exceptions, the interpretations presented greatly rely on personal
experience, and recent practices and understanding, each of which have
limited applicability to the more distant past. It seems to me that a
better understanding of past practices would be invaluable to the feild.
Instead of summarizing the literature on the subject, I'd like to recommend
the following, each from historians, to those inclined to pursue the issue
further:
Duffy, John. 1990. The Sanitarians: A History of American Public Health.
Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Hoy, Suellen. 1995. Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness.
New
York: Oxford University Press.
Melosi, Martin V. 2000. The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America
from Colonial Times to the Present. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University
Press.
Ogle, Maureen. 1996. All the Modern Conveniences: American Household
Plumbing, 1840-1890. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Stone, May N. 1979. The Plumbing Paradox: American Attitudes toward Late
Nineteenth-Century Domestic Sanitary Arrangements. Winterthur
Portfolio 14
(Autumn): 283-309.
Symmes, Rebecca Davenport. 1983. Sanitary Facilities in
Nineteenth-Century
American Domestic Architecture. Master's Thesis: University of
Delaware.
Tomes, Nancy. 1998. The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in
American Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
If anyone on the list knows of unpublished reports or literature in
historical archaelogy that deal with the subject of privies, plumbing
and/or sanitation, I'd greatly appreciate receiving a citation -- to Ned
Heite, do you have copy of the study on privy and well loctions that you
mentioned?
Timothy J. Mancl
Graduate Student
Industrial Heritage and Archaeology
Michigan Technological University
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