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The Keepers of Water and Earth : Mexican Rural Social Organization and Irrigation / Scott Whiteford, Kjell I. Enge.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©1989Description: 1 online resource (246 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292755963
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 333.913
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- FOREWORD -- PREFACE -- 1. MEXICAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND IRRIGATION -- 2. THE TEHUACAN VALLEY -- 3. THE PRE-CONQUEST DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION -- 4. POST-CONQUEST CONFLICT OVER LAND AND WATER. WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH LUIS EMILIO HENAO -- 5. COOPERATION AND DIFFERENTIATION -- 6. ELITES AND IRRIGATION ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT -- 7. "WE ARE ALL CAMPESINOS": THE CONTRADICTIONS OF GROWTH -- 8. CONCLUSIONS: THE STATE VERSUS LOCAL INTERESTS -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
Summary: Agrarian reforms transformed the Mexican countryside in the late twentieth century but without, in many cases, altering fundamental power relationships. This study of the Tehuacán Valley in the state of Puebla highlights different strategies to manipulate the local implementation of federal government programs. With their very differing successes in the struggle to regain and maintain control of land and water rights, these strategies raise important questions about the meaning of the phrase "locally controlled development." Because Mexico is dependent on irrigation for 45 percent of its cash crop production, national policy has focused on developing vast government controlled and financed irrigation systems. In the Tehuacán Valley, however, the inhabitants have developed a complex irrigation system without government aid or supervision. Yet, in contrast to most parts of Mexico, water rights can be bought and sold as a commodity, leading to accumulation, stratification, and emergence of a regional elite whose power is based on ownership of land and water. The analysis provides an important contribution to the understanding of local control. The findings of this study will be important to a wide audience involved in the study of irrigation, local agricultural systems, and the interplay between local power structures and the national government in developing countries. The book also presents unique material on gravity-fed, horizontal wells, known as qanat in the Middle East, which had been unknown in the literature on Latin America before this book.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780292755963

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- FOREWORD -- PREFACE -- 1. MEXICAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND IRRIGATION -- 2. THE TEHUACAN VALLEY -- 3. THE PRE-CONQUEST DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION -- 4. POST-CONQUEST CONFLICT OVER LAND AND WATER. WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH LUIS EMILIO HENAO -- 5. COOPERATION AND DIFFERENTIATION -- 6. ELITES AND IRRIGATION ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT -- 7. "WE ARE ALL CAMPESINOS": THE CONTRADICTIONS OF GROWTH -- 8. CONCLUSIONS: THE STATE VERSUS LOCAL INTERESTS -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Agrarian reforms transformed the Mexican countryside in the late twentieth century but without, in many cases, altering fundamental power relationships. This study of the Tehuacán Valley in the state of Puebla highlights different strategies to manipulate the local implementation of federal government programs. With their very differing successes in the struggle to regain and maintain control of land and water rights, these strategies raise important questions about the meaning of the phrase "locally controlled development." Because Mexico is dependent on irrigation for 45 percent of its cash crop production, national policy has focused on developing vast government controlled and financed irrigation systems. In the Tehuacán Valley, however, the inhabitants have developed a complex irrigation system without government aid or supervision. Yet, in contrast to most parts of Mexico, water rights can be bought and sold as a commodity, leading to accumulation, stratification, and emergence of a regional elite whose power is based on ownership of land and water. The analysis provides an important contribution to the understanding of local control. The findings of this study will be important to a wide audience involved in the study of irrigation, local agricultural systems, and the interplay between local power structures and the national government in developing countries. The book also presents unique material on gravity-fed, horizontal wells, known as qanat in the Middle East, which had been unknown in the literature on Latin America before this book.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)