Download or read book A Precious Liquid written by Michael C. Ennis-McMillan and published by Wadsworth Publishing Company. This book was released on 2006 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The text provides an ethnographic analysis of the social and cultural aspects of installing and managing a piped drinking water system in La Purificacion Tepetitla, a community located in the densely populated and semiarid region of the Valley of Mexico. The account shows how politics and culture shape community initiatives to develop adequate and equitable drinking water supplies in the Valley of Mexico's changing ecology. The research is based on 22 months of ethnographic fieldwork, carried out from 1993 to 2000. The book applies the culture concept to drinking water issues and furthers students' understanding of human diversity in terms of economics, ecological adaptation, politics, kinship, gender, ethnicity, health beliefs and practices, and religion and ritual.