“污秽/洁净”观念的变迁与“厕所革命”

The change of the ideas of “purity” and “impurity” and the toilet revolution in China

当前中国社会正在全面推展的"厕所革命",正在产生一系列深远的影响。除了中国"厕所文明"的提升、卫生防疫状况的好转、普通民众日常生活品质的提高,厕所革命还将潜移默化地影响到一般国民的"污秽/洁净"观念,以及基于此类观念的思考与行为。文章从文化人类学和民俗学的立场出发,对基于"分类"原理的"污秽/洁净"观念和基于"卫生科学"原理的"污秽/洁净"观念分别进行了归纳,指出这是两种性质不同、但彼此又有密切关联的观念,它们都是影响或规范人类排泄行为和排泄物处理体系的重大要因,它们也都相信某些疾病或其传播是由于排泄物的管理不善所导致的污秽或污染造成的。作者认为,中国的厕所革命将会进一步强化和普及基于"卫生科学"原理的"污秽/洁净"观念,在这个过程中,基于"分类"原理的"污秽/洁净"观念将在一定程度上被弱化,但它仍将延续,并会持续不断地被"再生产"出来。

Chinese society at present has been fully promoting the“toilet revolution”which has led to a series of far-reaching influences.Besides the civilization-oriented improvement of China’s toilet,better health and epidemic prevention,and the better quality of the people’s livelihood,“toilet revolution”also imperceptibly affects the general public’s ideas of“purity”and“impurity”as well as the thinking and behaviors based on such ideas.Starting from the perspective of cultural anthropology and folklore studies,this paper firstly summarizes the ideas of“purity”and“impurity”based on the principle of“classification”and that of“health science”,and then points out that the two kinds of ideas are different in nature but are closely related to each other.Because both of them are the major factors that affect or regulate human’s excretion and the waste management system,they reveal the belief that certain diseases or the spread of diseases are due to the contamination caused by the mismanagement of the excreta or pollution.The paper holds that the“toilet revolution”in China will further strengthen and popularize the ideas of“purity”and“impurity”based on the principle of“health science”.In this process,the ideas of“purity”and“impurity”based on the principle of“classification”will have less influence,though they will survive and be continuously“reproduced”.