Literacy, translation, practices
This article presents a case study about groundwater detection in a mountainous area of South Kordofan in Sudan. The inhabitants of these areas regularly experience water scarcity during dry seasons. Several factors have intensified this scarcity recently, among them protracted civil wars (1987‑2002...
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| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jda, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicat: |
Journal des anthropologues
2015
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumari: | This article presents a case study about groundwater detection in a mountainous area of South Kordofan in Sudan. The inhabitants of these areas regularly experience water scarcity during dry seasons. Several factors have intensified this scarcity recently, among them protracted civil wars (1987‑2002, 2011-?) and a steady decrease of rainfall. The study follows an attempt to establish a new source of water in the village of Abol. While the task seems merely to relate governmental hydrogeologists’ technical knowledge to specific environmental sites, their work is actually part of on-going negotiations of appropriate social action.In order to conceptualize the observed processes, the article reflects on the concept of environmental literacy and its ability to point to multiple individual perspectives on physical and social environments. The argument also employs the terms « translation » as an analytical concept to grasp attempts to create compatibility of social action and « practices » as individual social behaviour, which integrates both habitus and situational translation. The article concludes that careful scrutiny of these ways of accessing water allows for the identification of the ambiguities necessarily occurring during translation. In a situation favourable to open‑ended negotiations, this may provide new perspectives on how to address these ambiguities. |
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