Customer Reviews

Acequia: Water-sharing, Sanctity, And Place (Resident Scholar)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.