toileting

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First, Happy Winter Holidays to all, and a very good New Year, too.
I realize most of you are out, away from your computer and on
vacation. But there are those, like me, who are still doing the 8-5
job, but whose mind is elsewhere, for example, thinking about my diss.

So, here's the question: How many of you know of any data gathered
on toileting habits cross-culturally? This may seem trivial, but
when I was in the field, the problems of what to do with human waste
(and other forms of garbage) were quite real, and in the face of the
cholera epidemic that was weaving its way through Latin America, at
times life-threatening.
This all came up as I was writing up a section on architectural
changes in house designs, and realized that I didn't recall ever
reading any ethnograhic reports on bathrooms, plumbing, etc., except
in semi-comical "letters form the field" type writings. Is this
absence a result of an uptight attitude on the part of western
anthropologists that we won't deal with this, or my ignorance of
what's out there? Honestly, if one talks about applied anthro, and
one works anywhere where there are lower income communities, then
questions of hygiene must be dealt with.
Any comments or sources for futher research?

Kathi Kitner

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