Paradise for Whom?

Poettering, Jorun (2018): Paradise for Whom? Conservatism and Progress in the Perception of Rio de Janeiro’s Drinking Water Supply, Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries. In: Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 50, No. 3: pp. 703-727

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which the perception of Rio de Janeiro’s drinking water contributed to shaping the city’s hydric management in colonial and imperial times. Even though the general assessment of climate and vegetation changed from paradisiacal to injurious in the second half of the eighteenth century in accordance with Enlightenment ideas, this had no effect on the locals’ appreciation of the city’s drinking water. The criteria to evaluate the quality and quantity of available water were based on works from classical antiquity and remained essentially unchanged from early colonial times to the end of the empire. Not even the population growth and the increasing susceptibility to epidemics in the nineteenth century did induce the authorities to reform the water supply system as they were confident that the city was provided with good and abundant water by virtue of its natural disposition.

• Item Type: Journal article
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 659520
• EU Projects: Horizon 2020 > Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions > Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships > 659520: Contested Waters - Rio de Janeiro’s Public Water Supply and the Social Structuring of the City
• Form of publication: Postprint
• Keywords: water supply, Rio de Janeiro, city, environment, health, Wasserversorgung, Rio de Janeiro, Stadt, Umwelt, Gesundheit
• Faculties: History and Art History > Department of History > Neuere und Neueste Geschichte
• Subjects: 900 History and geography > 980 History of South America
• ISSN: 0022-216X
• Annotation: Published online 28 September 2017
• Language: English