ABSTRACT
In the past few decades, with the rise of a vocal environmental movement in many countries, it has become conventional to present indigenous groups’ relationships with water and those of (particularly Western) commercial water users in polarized terms, as if there were little or no common ground between engagements purportedly focused on spiritual issues, and those directed towards production and pro t. Like
other dualistic visions, however, this ignores the complexities inherent in humanenvironmental relationships, failing to recognize the economic aspects of indigenous interactions with water (and thus their rights of ownership and use), and ignoring the spiritual and emotional dimensions of other groups’ engagements.
