Abstract

GONZALEZ MARQUEZ, María Noel. A faulty hydrology. Hydrosocial cycle in the Laguna Merín basin of Uruguay. Rev. urug. Antropología y Etnografía [online]. 2022, vol.7, n.2, e647.  Epub Dec 01, 2022. ISSN 2393-7068.  https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v7i2.1647.

This work revisits a historical experience of environmental conflict in Uruguay. The Laguna Merín basin located in the eastern region of Uruguay and southern Brazil is currently known for being one of the territories specialized in the production of irrigated rice. In Uruguay, this specialization began during the 20th century in a wetland area through an extraordinary process of hydrological modification to convert it from being flooded and unproductive -due to a natural "hydrological deficiency"- to its current destiny as a thriving agro-productive region.

I take as references contributions from the field of water anthropology and studies of the hydrosocial cycle and landscapes that share premises around the political nature and water in particular. Thus, from a perspective of water as an entry point to historically understand the formation of socio-natural environments, this paper addresses an experience that can be considered the first environmental conflict in Uruguay. Water, in the considered process, is produced at the same time as the landscape as an object of scientific-technological knowledge, a machine for producing value, a transport of life and death, a source of power, struggles and hierarchies.

These different forms are quickly transformed to show the intricate relationship between water, power and ways of producing nature. Considering that water, including its materiality, is always a historically and culturally specific matter, this tour allows us to ask ourselves, what is water and what does it do in this place?

Keywords : water and power; socio-natural landscape; hydrosocial cycle; environmental anthropology; political ecology.

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