英文摘要 |
Based on ethnographic research from 2011 to 2014 in Kalibuan community, in the Chenyuland River Catchment in Taiwan, this article examines how indigenous people have constructed and shaped their own irrigation system and methods of water management. This case study has significant implications for addressing problems relating to water access in indigenous communities. The majority of residents in Kalibuan community are from the Bunun people, and their communal irrigation system is unique. Generally, most communities in mountain areas do not use communal irrigation systems; rather, farmers individually maintain private, small-scale irrigation systems. As a consequence, many communities have experienced water shortage and conflicts over access to water. This article focuses in particular on how engagement with the infrastructure of irrigation systems is experienced and interpreted within local social, political, and cultural contexts. Drawing on theoretical insights from Actant-Network theory and anthropological perspectives on property relations and ownership, I describe how interactions between actors are involved in the dynamic processes of property negotiations. This research suggests that property negotiations not only generate ongoing ways of owning and using water, but also define a geographical and ideological boundary in the community's irrigation infrastructure network. I argue that this boundary is key to enabling residents to form effective methods of water management, to turning their community into a ‘hydro-society', and to shaping good ‘hydro-citizens'. Finally, this article discusses Bunun thinking in relation to irrigation infrastructure, and how they have attempted to find better ways of water management that reflect Bunun concepts of ‘human-water' relations, social structure, and culture. |