ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the least known of all the care activities: help in using the toilet. The anthropological treatment of the toilet and – to be more precise – human defecation reflects that cultural taboo. The chapter focuses on care, in particular the help old people receive to visit the toilet – perhaps an unusual topic for an anthropological discussion but a fundamental element of daily well being. Children are expected to take care of their old parents but in actual life things often turn out differently. Toilets and defecation practices do not appear on the pages of ethnographic accounts. In the public toilet people ignore one another and no one's privacy or dignity is in danger. The discussion which ensued lasted the whole afternoon and covered topics such as dirt and cleanliness, respect and privacy, and the phenomenon of public toilets.
