Household water sharing: A review of water gifts, exchanges, and other transfers across cultures

Wutich, Amber, Budds, Jessica, Jepson, Wendy, Harris, Leila, Adams, Ellis, Brewis, Alexandra, Cronk, Lee, DeMyers, Christine, Maes, Kenneth, Marley, Tennille, Miller, Joshua, Pearson, Amber, Rosinger, Asher, Schuster, Roseanne, Stoler, Justin, Staddon, Chad, Wiessner, Polly, Workman, Cassandra and Young, Sera (2018) Household water sharing: A review of water gifts, exchanges, and other transfers across cultures. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 5 (6). ISSN 2049-1948

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Abstract

Water sharing offers insight into the everyday and, at times, invisible ties that bind people and households with water and to one another. Water sharing can take many forms, including so‐called “pure gifts,” balanced exchanges, and negative reciprocity. In this study, we examine water sharing between households as a culturally embedded practice that may be both need‐based and symbolically meaningful. Drawing on a wide‐ranging review of diverse literatures, we describe how households practice water sharing cross‐culturally in the context of four livelihood strategies (hunter‐gatherer, pastoralist, agricultural, and urban). We then explore how cross‐cutting material conditions (risks and costs/benefits, infrastructure and technologies), socioeconomic processes (social and political power, water entitlements, ethnicity and gender, territorial sovereignty), and cultural norms (moral economies of water, water ontologies, and religious beliefs) shape water sharing practices. Finally, we identify five new directions for future research on water sharing: conceptualization of water sharing; exploitation and status accumulation through water sharing, biocultural approaches to the health risks and benefits of water sharing, cultural meanings and socioeconomic values of waters shared; and water sharing as a way to enact resistance and build alternative economies.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	exchange,gift,household,reciprocity,sharing,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Water Security Research Centre Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Globalisation and CSR
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	29 Jun 2018 11:30
Last Modified:	12 May 2023 14:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/67486
DOI:	10.1002/wat2.1309

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