What is the Caganer??

We spend so much time devoted to talking food. But what happens to food after it enters our bodies?! We have failed to look at the full course of the food lifetime (apart from, of course, the show many of us reveled in at the dairy farm --was it just me or did every cow choose to have a bowel movement at the exact moment our attention was directed towards them!?).

I hope this post is not TMI for any readers. It’ll be tame, but I understand it’s a topic that often elicits embarrassment. That was not ever the case in my house. As unconventional as it may seem, its been a dinner conversation on more than one occasion- checking in with everyone making sure “all systems were go” and regular. It’s a private affair, so I suppose my parents wanted to check in with that aspect of our health somehow!

Different cultures have different attitudes towards poop. Americans and the British have forged a sentiment of amusement, creating jokes commonly incorporated in pop culture, while the French and particularly the Germans find it distasteful. After studying abroad, the difference in bathroom structure is very apparent. All Spanish homes are equipped with bidets, but this is not the case in the US. European bathrooms are far more private, with full length doors and more commonly private stalls, in stark contrast to the communal bathroom. In developing countries, feces-contaminated water is the leading cause of infant death, hardly a comedic matter (The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and why it Matters; George).

My real interest stems from an aspect of Catalonian culture that I found so interesting and unique- the caganer. The caganer is a small statue, most commonly a peasant man in a red cap, who is squatting and pooping and placed in the Nativity scene. Yes, the Nativity scene alongside the baby Jesus and the three wise men. The caganer represents the equality of all people: as everyone defecates regardless of status, race, or gender. Additionally, the caganer reinforces that the infant Jesus is God in human form, with all that being human implies. Most relevant, the caganer represents the importance in Catalan culture of eating well, and all that goes along with eating well. Their ''fertilizer'' enriches the earth around them, thus promising a buena cosecha (a good harvest) during the forthcoming year. This translates into a general good omen for the future.

The caganer is a lasting and important part of the culture, made evident by the 2005 government decision to remove the caganer from the public nativity in Barcelona. The local government countered many critics, who claimed an attack on Catalan culture, stating that the Caganer was not included because public defecation and urination had recently been made illegal. The Salvem el caganer campaign (Save the caganer) and media criticism led to the reinstatement of the caganer in the 2006 nativity.