Technology and Culture

Recently, history of technology as a discipline and the general focus in science and technology studies (STS) have witnessed shifts toward understanding technology and technical knowledge as everyday practice. Another trend is interest in global processes, which obviously needs to be grounded in local evidence. Ingrid Hehmeyer's A History of Water Engineering and Management in Yemen embodies these trends. Based on archeological evidence to supplement ancient texts, it also expands our view beyond the Global North.

A History of Water Engineering and Management in Yemen seeks to understand the intergenerational transfer of knowledge about water supply and management practices spanning several epochs and presents them as ordinary people's everyday experience of providing for their livelihoods sustainably. Eight case studies constitute the core of the book, spread over five parts.

Part 1 focuses on irrigated agriculture in ancient South Arabia. This is well explained through the case of the Oasis of Mārib, where the author explores the controlled irrigation network. By emphasizing that "to appreciate what people accomplished in each of these places, we must first address the different environments in which they settled and learned to harness the available resources," Hehmeyer underscores the understanding that indeed the local context informs people's innovative and inventive capabilities. Part 2 explores four case studies: Sayl Irrigation in Wādī Zabīd, the importance of the agricultural hinterland to pre-Ottoman Zabīd, engineered water systems in Wādī Zabīd, and water and wastewater in the city of Zabīd. Through these cases, the author discusses indigenous versus traveling ideas (technical skills) and further demonstrates the engineering sophistication of the traditional or local practices of procuring and managing the scarce water resources for daily sustenance. Part 3 explores the issue of underground water and the technologies of procuring it in the context of a falling water table and how society adjusted to managing it as a resource. Part 4 introduces the dimension of water storage. The cisterns of Al-jabīn become the lens through which the author demonstrates the technicalities involved in the construction and maintenance of stored water for use in times of plenty and paucity. Part 5 takes the reader through the interpretation of water as a scarce natural resource and the sociocultural permutations that accompany people's everyday experiences with water. Retrospectively, this book contributes to the emerging body of literature about water provisioning in the Global South, in this case the Middle East, and complements works like Nyanchaga's (2016) History of [End Page 1191] Water Supply and Governance in Kenya (1895–2005) and Bohman's (2010) Framing the Water and Sanitation Challenge: A History of Urban Water Supply and Sanitation in Ghana, 1909–2005.

Although the reliance on archaeological evidence and ancient Islamic or Arabian texts may be challenging or cumbersome for a non-Arabic reader, Hehmeyer has masterfully exploited these sources for understanding the thinking and imagination behind technology in everyday use. The notion of repair and maintenance that is recently receiving much attention from historians of technology also gains credence in this work. A History of Water Engineering and Management in Yemen offers interesting insights into ancient, medieval, and premodern water access practices and various imaginaries of forms of water. Water integrates into people's lives and fuses with people's sociocultural and religious norms. It is a stimulating and elaborative read that brings out the totality of water as a resource and its political, economic, and sociocultural facets both in their simple and complex forms. Hehmeyer's work is valuable for bolstering global studies of technology and puts people as users at the center of STS.