東아시아 糞尿시비의 전통과 生態農業의 屈折 －糞尿의 衛生과 寄生蟲을 중심으로－

Abstract

There were a variety of causes for utilizing manure in east Asian countries like South Korean and China. The traditional idea of ‘heaven, earth and man’ and the point of view of ecological circulation, before anything else, helped to perceive manure as a utilizable natural object among others in agriculture. The method for making compost by decomposing was also derived from the familiar fermentative method in East Asia. Manure was utilized as a microorganism which promotes decomposition. Ashes daily produced from ondol of Chosun was combined to human feces to make a fertilizer peculiar to Chosun as well. After the Sung dynasty, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the whole region of east Asia utilized excremental water as an additional fertilizer for paddy fields, which developed sericulture and fruit gardening increasing the multiple planting index of crops and further expanding the utilization of manure. It does not mean, however, that manure was welcomed as an unconditional resource in the pre-modern society. The sanitary problems related to manure were raised earlier on, and still, in the Sung dynasty, there appeared a professional occupation called environmental sanification worker. Jiangnan region in Ming-Qing dynasties also, on the other hand, actively utilized manure purchased and carried by manure ships from counties. As modernization of East Asia proceeded, however, toilet sheds were improved under the titles of health and cleanliness and manure was taken as the object of elimination in being the source of various diseases and pollution. Another cause for recognizing manure as a waste matter was that it was taken as the breeding ground for various parasites. As the result the application of manure was replaced by agricultural pesticide and chemical fertilizer, and human excreta was settled as the object to be washed up for good with water as soon as it is excreted. The problem lies in that health and life are in a greater threat by the food after the abovementioned transformation. Agricultural pesticides and toxic substances are causing various types of destructions and pollution of natural ecosystem, weakening bodily functions by affecting human hormones by genetically modified food and agrichemical poisoning, and causing a fundamental change in human body by bringing precocious puberty. People are looking for environment-friendly food and organic agricultural products, but food has already been turned into the symbol of one's social status, letting most of us live on in toxication from the existing agricultural and farm products without sensing a serious crisis. Organic agricultural products are important to us because food is life and agriculture is a future industry as well as an ecological industry. In that sense, agriculture should not be taken as the first industry of past, but as the sixth industry which preserves the ecological environment and our sustainable lives and future, anew.