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Cited by 32Colonialism, slavery, and tradeHistorical and Cultural Archaeology StudiesWater Governance and Infrastructure

A Political Ecology of Water and Enslavement: Water Ways in Eighteenth-Century Caribbean Plantations

Hauser, Mark William·2017·Current Anthropology
DOI 10.1086/691053
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Abstract

Recent headlines about Michigan, California, and India have disabused a public conventional wisdom that water is free of charge. Cases such as these, where human needs directly compete with institutional forces, are not new. Water, as a substance essential to production and reproduction in eighteenth-century Caribbean plantations, created a predicament, the resolution of which was unevenly borne by human beings held as slaves. Building on Barbara Voss’ concept of the mesoscale and Maria Zedeno’s insights about index objects, I present an assemblage-based analysis of slave life that compares “water ways” at two plantations occupied during Dominica’s brief sugar boom (1760–1830). I combine material characteristics of objects used to capture and transform water with their biographies in a landscape, circulations in peripheral flows, and supporting roles in social relations. Pottery and glass used to store, capture, and serve water were part of the creative strategies used by enslaved laborers to resolve some of the predicaments of slavery. At the same time, they created predicaments of their own, as media for some of the cultural politics that supported plantation colonies. As such, a focus on water ways allows us to examine exclusionary forces, such as regulation, markets, violence, and legitimation, at the human scale.

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Authors
Hauser, M. W.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author
Hauser, Mark William
Venue
Current Anthropology
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2017-04
Volume
58
Issue
2
Pages
227-256
ISSN
  • 0011-3204 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5382
DOI
10.1086/691053
OpenAlex
W2591682437
Cited by
32
References
149
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2
FWCI
61.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Current Anthropology (publishedVersion)
  • OpenBU (Boston University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Colonialism, slavery, and trade
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Water Governance and Infrastructure
Keywords
water, slavery, Caribbean plantations, 18th century, slave labor, waterways, assemblage theory, mesoscale, pottery, glassware, political ecology

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