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The Technical and Social Scope of Irrigation in the Algarve

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The History of Water Management in the Iberian Peninsula

Part of the book series: Trends in the History of Science ((TRENDSHISTORYSCIENCE))

Abstract

Focusing on irrigation systems in the Algarve, this paper argues that both the technical and the social aspects of watering the fields in the Algarve stem from Islamic influence that has been reinvented by local culture for centuries. Moreover, its importance for the community was such that the distribution of water among the neighbors in the Barrocal, an inland area of the Algarve, fell under the umbrella of municipal powers in the second half of the nineteenth century. Likewise, pleas and conflicts arising from water flows were solved in Courts of Law. This study also tackles the importance of irrigation in Iberian theoretical production, and, while the construction of wells, noras/norias and channels for water distribution were explained in agricultural treatises written in al-Andalus, this information then disappeared from early modern Iberian agricultural treatises. Therefore, the expertise developed in the Iberian Peninsula on irrigation is essentially local and passed on orally from generation to generation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Some regions in Central and Northern Europe have practiced irrigation, such as in the Swiss Alps and Norway, following the model of German water meadows. While it is true that irrigation leads to a noteworthy agricultural surplus in arid regions, it is also true that irrigation plays a key role in mountain environments (which agronomical studies have tended to ignore). Irrigation has been practiced in the Swiss Alps for more than one thousand years.

  2. 2.

    “Roundtable: Agricultural History and the History of Science”, in Agricultural History, Vol. 92, no. 4 (Fall 2018), pp. 569–604.

  3. 3.

    “Apesar de todo o litoral do Algarve ser constituído apenas de areia transformou-se, porém, graças à incansável aplicação dos seus habitantes, de resto pouco civilizados, mediante a rega artificial – quer através da escavação de inúmeros poços, quer através da cuidadosa utilização dos rios costeiros – num magnífico jardim, cujo ponto mais brilhante é formado pelas imediações de Tavira,” Willkomm, in Anais do Município de Faro, no. 18, 1988, p. 187.

  4. 4.

    The known written sources from this system are the register, which contains the list of all irrigators, and the "book of the levadeiro," which was distributed among the different levadeiros.

  5. 5.

    Municipal Rules of Loulé City Council, in 1862.

  6. 6.

    Municipal Rules of Loulé City Council, 1862.

  7. 7.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, Faro City Council, PT/MFAR/CMFAR/B-A/002/0001, the minutes of the September 1, 1892 meeting.

  8. 8.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, Manuscript, 1849.

  9. 9.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, Faro City Council, PT/MFAR/CMFAR/B-A/002/0001, D4.1-E2-P4, Requirement for the Levada’s construction, 1849.

  10. 10.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, D4.2-E5-M26-TJCOLH/2/468.

  11. 11.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, D4.2-E5-M26-TJCOLH/2/468, fl. 2v.

  12. 12.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, PT/ADFAR/JVD/TJCOLH/032/00111 or D4.2-E 38-P4.

  13. 13.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, D4.2-E5-M29-TJCOLH/2/720, fls. 2-2v.

  14. 14.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, D4.2-E5-M29-TJCOLH/2/720, fl. 14.

  15. 15.

    Faro’s Regional Archive, D4.2-E5-M29-TJCOLH/2/720, fl. 155.

  16. 16.

    Gustavo Adolfo Gyllemborg wrote Natural and Chemical Elements of Agriculture in English, and it was translated into Spanish and published in 1775. There was a second edition published in 1794. Gómez Ortega, Casimiro (tr.), Elementos Naturales y Chymicos de Agricultura del Conde Gustavo Adolfo Gyllemborg, Madrid: Vda. Ibarra, 1794.

  17. 17.

    The Frenchman Duhamel de Monceau wrote a book on forestry, which was also translated from French into Spanish by Casimiro Gómez Ortega, the translator of Gyllemborg’s treatise. Tratado del cuidado y aprovechamiento de los montes y bosques, corta, poda, beneficio y uso de sus maderas, y lenas: escrito em frances por Mr. Duhamel du Monceau; y traducido al castellano com varias notas por el Dr. D. Casimiro Gomez de Ortega, Madrid: D. Joachin Ibarra, 1773–1774.

  18. 18.

    Jethro Tull, The new horse-houghing husbandry: or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation. Wherein is shewn, a method of introducing a sort of vineyard-culture into the corn-fields, in order to increase their product, and diminish the common expense, by the use of instruments lately invented, London: printed for the author, 1731.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e Tecnologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Duarte Rodrigues

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Correspondence to Ana Duarte Rodrigues .

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  1. Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e Tecnologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Duarte Rodrigues

  2. Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain

    Carmen Toribio Marín

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Rodrigues, A.D. (2020). The Technical and Social Scope of Irrigation in the Algarve. In: Duarte Rodrigues, A., Toribio Marín, C. (eds) The History of Water Management in the Iberian Peninsula. Trends in the History of Science. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34061-2_11

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