Re: asking for the bathroom

So far, all participants in this discussion have assumed
that people would urinate and defecate in the same place.
In several societies, that hasn't been true. For example,
urine was very valuable to the Aztecs because it was the
only economical acid available for fixing dyes in cloth
(which was one of that tribe's most lucrative industries).
So the tribe (which was strictly urban) set up urination stalls
along the streets of its cities (where Mexico City now is)
and required its people and its cities' visitors to deposit all
their urine (and only their urine) there, either by urinating
there or by dumping their home urine pots there. All that
urine thereby become the property of the tribe.

Other societies have surely valued feces as fertilizer, and
you certainly wouldn't want urine to be mixed with it if you
(or your tribe) grew vegetables (which dislike acidic soil).

-- Tommie

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