Delta Life: Exploring Dynamic Environments where Rivers Meet the Sea

Open Access Published by Berghahn Books 2021

Delta Life

Exploring Dynamic Environments where Rivers Meet the Sea

Edited by: Franz Krause and Mark Harris

Volume 28 in the series Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800731257

Overview
Contents

About this book

Proposing a series of innovative steps towards better understanding human lives at the interstices of water and land, this volume includes eight ethnographies from deltas around the world. The book presents ‘delta life’ with intimate descriptions of the predicaments, imaginations and activities of delta inhabitants. Conceptually, the collection develops ‘delta life’ as a metaphor for approaching continual and intersecting sociocultural, economic and material transformations more widely. The book revolves around questions of hydrosociality, volatility, rhythms and scale. It thereby yields insights into people’s lives that conventional, hydrological approaches to deltas cannot provide.

Author / Editor information

Franz Krause is an anthropologist interested in the role of water in society and culture. He works as Junior Research Group Leader of the DELTA project at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne, Germany.

Mark Harris is the Head of the School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, UK. His wider interests include ethnohistory; environmental anthropology; knowledge in and methodology of the social sciences and the practice of teaching and learning.

Franz Krause is an anthropologist interested in the role of water in society and culture. He works as Junior Research Group Leader of the DELTA project at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne, Germany.

Reviews

“This volume does more than assemble ethnographic studies of delta inhabitants from around the world. It weaves their experience into a sustained reflection on life in a volatile world of islands, reedbeds, coasts and swamps, a world ever made, unmade and remade, as much by spirits as by people, and as much by states and markets as by the elements of air, earth and water. Here, the lens of the delta affords rare insight into what it means to live downstream.” • Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen

“Starting from the dynamic instability of river deltas as volatile biosocial entities, the contributors to this pioneering volume jolt us to rethink our ideas about coastal edges and the beings, matter, and practices through which they form and persist.” • Hugh Raffles, The New School

“This is an original book that offers a variety of approaches to conceptualizing, empirically studying, and theorizing deltas as distinct sites of socio-material relations. The authors offer contrasting and complementing approaches that make the volume a useful introduction to the theme.” • Andrea Ballestero, Rice University

“I think that the book is excellent and will make an important contribution to debates in the field.” • Jason Cons, University of Texas at Austin

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction. Life at Water’s Edge Franz Krause and Mark Harris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Displacing the Delta: Notes on the Anthropology of the Earth’s Physical Features Tanya Richardson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Chapter 2. The Global Swamp: The Amphibious as a Figure of Heterotopia Lukas Ley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Chapter 3. Stagnation: Waterflows and the Politics of Stranded Matter in La Mojana, Colombia Alejandro Camargo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
Chapter 4. Economy, Identity and Hydrology: Towards a Holistic Approach to Intersecting Volatilities in the Mackenzie Delta, Canada Franz Krause Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
Chapter 5. ‘This Tide Will Be a Good Tide’: On Movement, Anticipative Waiting and Tricking on the Islands of the Parnaíba Delta, Brazil Nora Horisberger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Chapter 6. Gleaning Time: Practice, Pause and Anticipation in the Sine-Saloum Delta, Senegal Sandro Simon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
Chapter 7. Lived Histories of Flows and Sediments in a Turkish Delta Caterina Scaramelli Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
Chapter 8. Available, Yet Unavailable: Anchoring Land in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar Benoit Ivars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Conclusion. Confluences and Distributaries in Delta Life Franz Krause and Mark Harris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 262
Keywords: Environmental Studies (General); Anthropology (General); Sociology

eBook

Published: June 11, 2021
ISBN: 9781800731257