Melting the Kachinas: Agricultural Hegemony and Indigenous Incorporation at Zuni Pueblo in the Modern Era

An historical political ecology of Zuni Pueblo illustrates several processes that led to native agricultural decline in the region. Modern indigenous agriculture, and its associated techniques or practices, is marginalized within the literature. The reasons for the decline of traditional agricultural management at Zuni, as for much of the Southwestern United States, are complex. U.S. federal policies aimed at breaking indigenous theocractic rule, reforming land tenure, and modernizing reservation agriculture all contributed to this process at Zuni Pueblo. Underlying the material changes were also several conceptual or ideological processes that served the same purpose, and one that can be termed agricultural hegemony. The replacement of the Zuni kachinas, icons of discipline within traditional ceremonial roles, with those of modern agricultural sciences and practices were fundamental to the eventual outcome. Key words: Zuni Pueblo, agriculture, landscape, native policy, hegemony, historical political ecology

Oyster feuds: conflicting discourses and outcomes in Point Reyes, California

Abstract The closure of Drake's Bay Oyster Farm in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, ignited a heated local and national conflict regarding the roles of stewardship and conservation and private business in protected areas. It is vital to examine parks and conservation critically to identify places where they are exacerbating resource struggles that often result from globalization and development, in the United States and in other countries. This article uses Foucauldian discourse analysis to identify conflicting discourses present in this conflict and to analyze knowledge and power in relation to issues of resource and land use in protected areas. This analysis highlights differences in scale and logic between the discourse used by local stakeholders, and the discourse used by conservation organizations and Park officials, in the Point Reyes conflict and in other National Parks. Key Words: Political ecology, discourse, aquaculture, oysters, Foucault, National Parks, conservation, land stewardship, Point Reyes, protected area

The Politics of Scaling Water Governance and Adjudication in New Mexico

This paper discusses the scalar politics of the water rights adjudication process in New Mexico (US). Over the past 150 years, water governance in New Mexico has gradually shifted away from communal management towards more individualised 'water rights'. This paper addresses the consequences of this shift for water users while also addressing the literature on the politics of scale and scalar politics. Actors engaged in water governance mobilise scale, and scalar politics operate in different settings, depending on the priorities of the stakeholders. Using interviews, archival research, and institutional ethnography, I illustrate how scale of various kinds is fundamental to the process of water rights adjudication and water governance in the state of New Mexico. Although the academic sense of the politics of scale remains contested, these debates seem largely abstract to most water users, even if they materially and rhetorically engage in multiple levels of scalar politics. The framing of scale arguments ranges from the biopolitics of individual water rights holders, to the new regionalisation of ditches due to adjudication, to considerations at the larger watershed level