The dispute for water: An approach to the defense of knowledge and common goods in contexts of dispossession

Abstract

The text illustrates the dispute surrounding water as a material, symbolic and political resource for the Nahua community of Atla, in the Sierra Norte de Puebla. From the perspective of symbolic anthropology, Acosta shows the divergence between rationalities and different valuation languages about “water.” On the one hand it is personified as Atlanchane or la Sirena (the Mermaid), recog- nized as a life-giving entity, and whose proper veneration and celebration guarantees the social reproduction of the community. On the other hand, its “reification” is evident in the ambition of the instrumental management of sources and springs by partisan groups that control local political power. The emphasis on the symbolic value of water takes on relevance in a context marked by a huge number of megaprojects and territorial intervention plans. In this sense, the contribution of knowledge produced by ethnographic and anthropological practice becomes evident as an argu- mentative tool against extractive processes.