Full-text February 2010 In Focus commentaries will be available here through February 28, and subsequently through AnthroSource. Share your comments on these articles through the AAA blog and look at full-color photos from AN on Flickr. Read more about accessing Anthropology News electronically on our archives page. See the AN homepage for information on opportunities to contribute to AN.
 
The Meaning of Water

Following last month’s commentaries on water governance, this month we feature an In Focus series on the meaning of water, addressing water cosmology and spirituality, as well as relationships with water as a community resource, key factor in identity construction, ancestral inheritance, site of habitation, and means of livelihood and transportation. Additional water-related content, focusing on interpretations of and responses to climate change, can be found in the Knowledge Exchange section, available soon on AnthroSource.

Marc Brightman
Water Management in Sites of Abundance: Ecosystem Policy and Native Peoples in the Guianas

Veronica Strang
The Summoning of Dragons: Ancestral Serpents and Indigenous Water Rights in Australia and New Zealand

Jeanne Féaux de la Croix
Building Dams in Central Asia: Sacred Products of the Soviet and Post-Soviet State?

Celeste Ray
Ireland’s Holy Wells: Healing Waters and Contested Liturgies

Penny McCall Howard
Working the Ground: Life and Death at Sea

Susan Pettit-Riley, M Brian Riley and Arthur D Murphy
Selling Hope and Health: Marketing Clean Water and Perceptions of Health in Rural Bolivia

This month’s issue also features coverage from the 2009 AAA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. To view the photos from the meeting as well as full-color photos from the series on water, please visit our Flickr page.