Every society must have a system for capturing, storing, and distributing water, a system encompassing both technology and a rationale for the division of this finite resource. Today, people around the world face severe and growing water scarcity, and everywhere this vital resource is ceasing to be a right and becoming a commodity. The acequia or irrigation ditch associations of Taos, Rio Arriba, Mora, and other northern New Mexico counties offer an alternative. Few northern New Mexicans farm for a living anymore, but many still gather to clean the ditches each spring and irrigate fields and gardens with the water that runs through them. Increasingly, ditch associations also go to court to defend their water rights against the competing claims brought by population growth, urbanization, and industrial or resort development. Their insistence on the traditional sharing of waters offers a solution to the current worldwide water crisis.
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Sylvia Rodriguez deftly integrates the daily labor investments in ditch and field maintenance with the deeply embedded religious rituals necessary for the sanctity of the agricultural landscape.....Scrupulous in her documentation of detail ... she places the study in a global arena.... --Vernon Scarborough, 9/16/07
...a theoretically informed, empirically rigorous, and socially relevant anthropology of water use that overcomes the limits of academic fashion. --Casey Walsh, American Anthropologist, vol. 112, no. 2
…Rodriguez writes a fascinating account of the interaction of water, faith, and landscape in northern New Mexico. Sylvia Rodriguez's Acequia details the historic management of water and its impact on daily life in the Taos Valley…. In addition to this story, which recalls a way of life that dates to Spanish colonial times, she explores the ongoing legal disputes over who owns and controls the life-giving liquid. --Jon Hunner, Western Historical Quarterly Vol. XXXIX, No. 2, Summer 2008
...a theoretically informed, empirically rigorous, and socially relevant anthropology of water use that overcomes the limits of academic fashion. --Casey Walsh, American Anthropologist, vol. 112, no. 2
…Rodriguez writes a fascinating account of the interaction of water, faith, and landscape in northern New Mexico. Sylvia Rodriguez's Acequia details the historic management of water and its impact on daily life in the Taos Valley…. In addition to this story, which recalls a way of life that dates to Spanish colonial times, she explores the ongoing legal disputes over who owns and controls the life-giving liquid. --Jon Hunner, Western Historical Quarterly Vol. XXXIX, No. 2, Summer 2008
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pithy, partial historical anthropology?,
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This review is from: Acequia: Water-sharing, Sanctity, And Place (Resident Scholar) (Paperback)
I eagerly awaited the release of this book, having heard the buzz about it from SAR folks and those working in the Taos Valley of New Mexico. When it arrived, it was far more humanistic and less jargon-laden than I expected, my students took to the anthropological sections like fish to water. No problems there - great stuff on water, ritual, and its importance in the Taos area. But economics? No. Consideration of Taos Pueblo water rights and uses, no but she did not have access to this information (who does?). It usefully reviews the history of the legal quagmire in the Taos Valley, between competing authorities, institutions, over water rights in the last 30 years (+). These conflicts and frequent water rights accommodations have a long history in the area, of course, and "Acequia" has found a permanent place on my New Mexico shelf. Many of the place portraits, descriptions of ritual, and understanding of water's importance offer insights to any reader. For those hoping for a more "juridical" overview of the water adjudication process in New Mexico, however, the void is still large. Nicely produced volume from SAR Press, with useful addenda, bibliography and index.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timely and serious-minded glimpse of the modern history and future of acequia,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Acequia: Water-sharing, Sanctity, And Place (Resident Scholar) (Paperback)
Acequia: Water Sharing, Sanctity, and Place is a timely look at a means in which water, an increasingly commodified resource vital to human life, can be shared in an era of population growth, global warming and increasing urbanization. Acequia, or irrigation ditch associations of Taos, Rio Arriba, Mora, and other northern New Mexico counties offer a viable alternative plan; every spring, people gather to clean the ditches and irrigate fields and gardens with the water that runs through them. Today, ditch associations must increasingly go to court to defend their water against claims brought by population growth or industrial or resort development. A handful of color plates and maps illustrate this timely and serious-minded glimpse of the modern history and future of acequia and international relations concerning water. Highly recommended.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The story told in these pages is born out of the struggle of acequia systems to survive in a world where water scarcity and competition are no longer local issues but part of a global crisis. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
las joyas, acequia practice, old placita, acequia associations, community acequias, acequia systems, pueblo governor, devotional community, personal communication with the author, water sharing, irrigated acres, stream diversion Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Arroyo Seco, Río Lucero, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, Río Pueblo, San Isidro, Taos Valley, Los Córdovas, Tenorio Tract, Karavas Tract, Rio Grande, Río Grande del Rancho, Acequia del Medio, Río Hondo, Las Colonias, Río Fernando, Don Fernando, Blue Lake, Juan Manuel Lucero, San Ysidro, Doña Corina, Des Montes, Las Cruces, Pot Creek, Sylvia Rodriguez Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The story told in these pages is born out of the struggle of acequia systems to survive in a world where water scarcity and competition are no longer local issues but part of a global crisis. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
las joyas, acequia practice, old placita, acequia associations, community acequias, acequia systems, pueblo governor, devotional community, personal communication with the author, water sharing, irrigated acres, stream diversion Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Arroyo Seco, Río Lucero, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, Río Pueblo, San Isidro, Taos Valley, Los Córdovas, Tenorio Tract, Karavas Tract, Rio Grande, Río Grande del Rancho, Acequia del Medio, Río Hondo, Las Colonias, Río Fernando, Don Fernando, Blue Lake, Juan Manuel Lucero, San Ysidro, Doña Corina, Des Montes, Las Cruces, Pot Creek, Sylvia Rodriguez Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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