Excrementalisms
Revaluing what we have only ever known as waste
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12799348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Max Gerling (Augustana University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 622-638 |
| Publication date | 2019-07-23 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Food Culture & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1552-8014 • E-ISSN: 1751-7443 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15528014.2019.1638126 |
| OpenAlex | W2964018839 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 16 |
Though we may be accustomed to our “flush-and-forget” system of disposal, excrement was not named “human waste” until 1863. Before the mid-to-late 1800s, excrement was a commodity, a valuable fertilizer collected by scavengers and bought by farmers. As it transitioned to waste in the ensuing decades, human excrement became tainted with social fissures of the Long Progressive Era. That is, during the time when the U.S. went through a notable sanitary revolution, white Americans used excrement and pseudoscience to reinforce their feelings of racial superiority over both Native Americans and darker-skinned peoples they encountered in newly acquired territories after 1898. Examining excrement as a rich source of historical analysis reveals its position at the nexus of many Progressive Era threads, including a transition to modern artificial fertilizer, a greater presence for women in the public sphere, imperialism, and virulent racism. The consequences of revaluing excrement as a waste during this period are extensive and, by-and-large, tragic and avoidable
Nexus (standard · Political science · Racism · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Engineering · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law
Nature's Perfect Food
The Darkness That Enters the Home
A Cultural History of Cuba during the U.S. Occupation, 1898–1902
Bread of Dreams
White Bread
How Race Is Made
Killing the White Man's Indian
Colonial Pathologies
Administering Colonial Science
Water and Wastes
Pollution and Reform in American Cities, 1870-1930
The Problem of Indian Administration
Boarding School Blues
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |