In
medicine and
biology, scatology or coprology is the study of
feces
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
.
Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its
diet (and thus
where it has been),
health and
diseases such as
tapeworms.
A comprehensive study of scatology was documented by
John Gregory Bourke under the title '' Rites of All Nations'' (1891), with a 1913 German translation including a foreword by
Sigmund Freud. An abbreviated version of the work was published as ''The Portable Scatalog'' in 1994.
Etymology
The word derives from the
Greek ( ) meaning "dung, feces"; ''coprology'' derives from the Greek of similar meaning.
Psychology
In
psychology, a scatology is an obsession with
excretion or
excrement
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
, or the study of such obsessions.
In
sexual fetishism
Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a sexual fixation on a nonliving object or nongenital body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has ''a fetish'' for that object is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regard ...
, scatology (usually abbreviated ''scat'') refers to
coprophilia, when a being is
sexually aroused
Sexual arousal (also known as sexual excitement) describes the physiological and psychological responses in preparation for sexual intercourse or when exposed to sexual stimuli. A number of physiological responses occur in the body and mind ...
by fecal matter, whether in the use of feces in various sexual acts, watching someone
defecating, or simply seeing the feces. Entire subcultures in sexuality are devoted to this fetish.
Literature
In
literature, "scatological" is a term to denote the literary
trope
Trope or tropes may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept
* Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device
* Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...
of the
grotesque body. It is used to describe works that make particular reference to excretion or excrement, as well as to
toilet humor. Well known for his scatological tropes is the late medieval fictional character of
Till Eulenspiegel. Another common example is
John Dryden's ''
Mac Flecknoe'', a poem that employs extensive scatological imagery to ridicule Dryden's contemporary
Thomas Shadwell. German literature is particularly rich in scatological texts and references, including such books as
Collofino's ''Non Olet''. A case which has provoked an unusual amount of comment in the academic literature is
Mozart's scatological humour. Smith, in his review of English literature's representations of scatology from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, notes two attitudes towards scatology. One of these emphasises the merry and the carnivalesque. This is found in
Chaucer and
Shakespeare. The other attitude is one of self-disgust and misanthropy. This is found in the works of the
Earl of Rochester
Earl of Rochester is a title that was created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1652 in favour of the Royalist soldier Henry Wilmot, 2nd Viscount Wilmot. He had already been created Baron Wilmot, of Adderbury in the Cou ...
and
Jonathan Swift.
See also
*
Coprolite
*
Coprophilia
*
Stool sample
*
Urolagnia
Urolagnia (also urophilia, and, more colloquially, a golden shower or watersports) associates sexual excitement with the sight or thought of urine or urination, and may also refer to such behaviours or acts. It is a paraphilia.
The term has o ...
– urination fetish
Sources
*
Bakhtin, Mikhail
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ( ; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic and scholar who worked on literary the ...
, ''
Rabelais and His World''.
* Lewin, Ralph, ''Merde: excursions in scientific, cultural and socio-historical coprology''.
Random House, 1999. .
* Susan Gubar,
The Female Monster in Augustan Satire" ''Signs'' 3.2 (Winter, 1977): 380–394.
* Jae Num Lee, ''Swift and Scatological Satire''.
University of New Mexico Press, 1971. .
* Smith, Peter J. (2012) Between Two Stools: Scatology and its Representation in English Literature, Chaucer to Swift,
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with th ...
David Palumbo, David (2012) Review of Between Two Stools: Scatology and its Representation in English Literature, Chaucer to Swift, by Peter J. Smith, ''Times Higher Education'' Oct 4, 2012
(Accessed Nov 2015)
*
References
{{Toilets
Feces