Citation
Brewis, Alexandra A.; Piperata, Barbara; Thompson, Amanda L.; & Wutich, Amber (2020). Localizing Resource Insecurities: A Biocultural Perspective on Water and Wellbeing. WIRES Water, 7(4), e1440.Abstract
A biocultural approach provides an emerging framework for clarifying the mechanisms that connect water security to human health and wellbeing. Five basic tenets of the biocultural approach are outlined: The focus on the local, the centrality of culture, the notion of embodied disadvantage, a concern with proximate mechanisms as a means to test theorized pathways, and recognition of intersecting and potentially amplified (syndemic) risks. From a review of both new and dispersed biocultural literature on household water, four key themes emerge: (a) individual vulnerabilities to the biological effects of water insecurity are shaped by cultural practices; (b) water insecurity is a powerful biocultural stressor on mental health; (c) water insecurity mediates between low power and worse health within communities, and through multiple mechanisms; (d) the household is a nexus for food–water interactions, each likely worsening each other and health through syndemic relationships. This sets an agenda for a biocultural approach to the household as a localizing nexus for manifesting the very human costs to mental and physical health of managing under conditions of extreme household resource insecurity.URL
https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1440Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2020Journal Title
WIRES WaterAuthor(s)
Brewis, Alexandra A.Piperata, Barbara
Thompson, Amanda L.
Wutich, Amber