Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Water shapes institutions, communities, and cultural heritage through physical waterways and social relationships with water. Study of this water-community entanglement shows that human activity and climate processes are transforming “water heritage,” including canals, irrigation systems, ponds, and cultural knowledge. On the Colorado Plateau, waterscapes have long supported Indigenous and settler agricultural and water-harvesting practices. A historical perspective demonstrates the central role of water heritage in forming, sustaining, and reshaping communities over time. Drawing primarily on ethnohistoric evidence, this paper traces how community relationships with water have changed since early European arrival in the eighteenth century. We argue that a water heritage framework integrating tangible and intangible elements reveals how water management and social relationships have been historically structured, and continue to structure plateau communities. Using Blanding, Utah, as a case study, we show that despite demographic and social changes, enduring relationships with water continue to shape identity and culture.
Source: KIVA
Authors: Anna S. Cohen, Molly Boeka Cannon
Institutions: Florida State University, Utah State University
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Award: G1300186001
OpenAlex ID: W7133953810