[Culture, environment and fecal hazards: anthropological observations]

This paper was presented as a tribute to André Dodin, formerly director of the Paris Pasteur Institute's cholera department. It was intended to: - recall representations of what is seen as pure, impure, sullied, dirty ... medical and social interventions depend not only on scientific theories but also on unconscious presuppositions linked to their particular history and culture; - to stress the necessity of reexamining epidemiological chains in fecal peril bearing in mind bodily techniques and the material and symbolic behaviour of the populations concerned; - to insist upon the fact that traditional sanitation techniques do exist and should not be neglected, whether it be to make use of them, avoid or combat them. It is not a question of idealizing local culture, but of becoming acquainted with it so as better to appreciate its role.