FRI / June 1809:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.CONCEPTS OF WATER

Ernst Halbmayer / Daniela Triml-Chifflard (Marburg)

Multiplicities of Water

Praxeological and Otherwise

The multiplicity of water has become the central focus in current debates on an anthropology of water. The lecture foregrounds the developed concepts and asks along which axioms this multiplicity has been investigated and theorized. Which forms of multiplicity of water become visible, thematized and investigated against the background of what theoretical axioms? What are the transformations of water taking place in this process? Are there also forms and ways of existence of water that remain largely unconsidered? Using examples from New Zealand, southern Africa, and northern South America, we not only ask for multiplicities, but aim to consider alternative epistemologies, inherent qualities, and ontologies of water. How can the alterity of water in addition to the multiplicity be addressed in a future anthropology of water and become the basis for decolonizing hegemonic practices, discourses, and forms of knowledge? What are the theoretical, political and legal consequences if water is not only multiple in the praxeological sense, but also otherwise in the cosmopolitan sense and brings water's alternative ways of being into existence?

Back