Water Sharing Is a Distressing Form of Reciprocity: Shame, Upset, Anger, and Conflict Over Water in Twenty Cross-Cultural Sites

Overview

Journal Am Anthropol

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2022 Sep 15

PMID 36108326

Authors

Amber Wutich

Asher Y Rosinger

Alexandra Brewis

Melissa Beresford

Sera L Young

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Anthropological theories of reciprocity suggest it enhances prestige, social solidarity, and material security. Yet, some ethnographic cases suggest that water sharing-a form of reciprocity newly gaining scholarly attention-might work in the opposite way, increasing conflict and emotional distress. Using cross-cultural survey data from twenty global sites (n=4,267), we test how household water reciprocity (giving and receiving) is associated with negative emotional and social outcomes. Participation in water sharing as both givers and receivers is consistently associated with greater odds of reporting shame, upset, and conflict over water. Water sharing experiences in a large, diverse sample confirm a lack of alignment with predictions of classic reciprocity theories. Recent ethnographic research on reciprocity in contexts of deepening contemporary poverty will allow development of ethnographically informed theories to better explain negative experiences tied to water reciprocity.

Citing Articles

Coping strategies for household water insecurity in rural Gambia, mediating factors in the relationship between weather, water and health.

Bose I, Dreibelbis R, Green R, A Murray K, Ceesay O, Kovats S BMC Public Health. 2024; 24(1):3150.

PMID: 39538158 PMC: 11562698. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-20588-5.

Frequency and perceived difficulty of household water experiences in Morogoro, Tanzania: Evidence of the psychosocial burden of water insecurity.

Workman C, Miller J, Shah S, Maes K, Tesfaye Y, Mapunda K SSM Ment Health. 2024; 5.

PMID: 39099889 PMC: 11293490. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmmh.2023.100295.

MAD Water: Integrating Modular, Adaptive, and Decentralized Approaches for Water Security in the Climate Change Era.

Wutich A, Thomson P, Jepson W, Stoler J, Cooperman A, Doss-Gollin J WIREs Water. 2024; 10(6).

PMID: 38162537 PMC: 10756426. DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1680.

Frontiers of household water insecurity metrics: severity, adaptation and resilience.

Stoler J, Jepson W, Brewis A, Wutich A BMJ Glob Health. 2023; 8(5).

PMID: 37137537 PMC: 10163551. DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-011756.

References

Young S, Boateng G, Jamaluddine Z, Miller J, Frongillo E, Neilands T . The Household Water InSecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale: development and validation of a household water insecurity measure for low-income and middle-income countries. BMJ Glob Health. 2019; 4(5):e001750. PMC: 6768340. DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001750. View

Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R . A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav. 1983; 24(4):385-96. View

Stoler J, Brewis A, Harris L, Wutich A, Pearson A, Rosinger A . Household water sharing: a missing link in international health. Int Health. 2018; 11(3):163-165. PMC: 6484635. DOI: 10.1093/inthealth/ihy094. View

Rosinger A, Brewis A, Wutich A, Jepson W, Staddon C, Stoler J . Water borrowing is consistently practiced globally and is associated with water-related system failures across diverse environments. Glob Environ Change. 2020; 64. PMC: 7566692. DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102148. View

Sznycer D, Tooby J, Cosmides L, Porat R, Shalvi S, Halperin E . Shame closely tracks the threat of devaluation by others, even across cultures. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016; 113(10):2625-30. PMC: 4790975. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1514699113. View

Schnegg M . Reciprocity on Demand : Sharing and Exchanging Food in Northwestern Namibia. Hum Nat. 2015; 26(3):313-30. PMC: 4550639. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-015-9236-5. View

Wutich A . Intrahousehold disparities in women and men's experiences of water insecurity and emotional distress in urban Bolivia. Med Anthropol Q. 2010; 23(4):436-54. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1387.2009.01072.x. View

Stevenson E, Greene L, Maes K, Ambelu A, Tesfaye Y, Rheingans R . Water insecurity in 3 dimensions: an anthropological perspective on water and women's psychosocial distress in Ethiopia. Soc Sci Med. 2012; 75(2):392-400. PMC: 3394402. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.022. View

Young S, Collins S, Boateng G, Neilands T, Jamaluddine Z, Miller J . Development and validation protocol for an instrument to measure household water insecurity across cultures and ecologies: the Household Water InSecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale. BMJ Open. 2019; 9(1):e023558. PMC: 6340431. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023558. View

10.

. Suffering from water: social origins of bodily distress in a Mexican community. Med Anthropol Q. 2001; 15(3):368-90. DOI: 10.1525/maq.2001.15.3.368. View

11.

Hadley C, Stevenson E, Tadesse Y, Belachew T . Rapidly rising food prices and the experience of food insecurity in urban Ethiopia: impacts on health and well-being. Soc Sci Med. 2012; 75(12):2412-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.018. View

12.

Eichelberger L . Living in utility scarcity: energy and water insecurity in Northwest Alaska. Am J Public Health. 2010; 100(6):1010-8. PMC: 2866609. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.160846. View

13.

Wutich A, Ragsdale K . Water insecurity and emotional distress: coping with supply, access, and seasonal variability of water in a Bolivian squatter settlement. Soc Sci Med. 2008; 67(12):2116-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.09.042. View

14.

Wutich A, Budds J, Jepson W, Harris L, Adams E, Brewis A . Household water sharing: A review of water gifts, exchanges, and transfers across cultures. WIREs Water. 2019; 5(6). PMC: 6407694. DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1309. View