The Infiltration Gallery in Mexico: Two Diffusions
Richard K. Cleek
Contents:
Introduction
1. The Infiltration Gallery
2. The Initial Diffusion
3. Diffusion by Engineers
4. A Further Diffusion
Summary
Introduction
Water supply for both irrigation and domestic use is obtained in many
areas of Mexico using a Middle Eastern technique — the qanat or infiltration
gallery. Two distinctive diffusion processes have led to two patterns of gallery
use in Mexico. The first and earliest distribution pattern of widespread gallery
systems is found in the Puebla-Tehuacan Valleys, is associated primarily with
irrigation, and is the result of expansion diffusion through adopters familiar
with the technique. Although the initial introduction of the gallery is obscure
most evidence points to an early post-Conquest period of diffusion through
both religious orders and haciendas. The second major pattern of scattered
single systems is associated with government-built potable water supply
galleries with villagers playing the role of passive adopters. In this case, the
gallery was introduced to Mexican engineers through the technical literature
of southern Europe and the United States - engineers who applied the tech
nique as standard engineering practice.
These patterns are the result of two diffusion processes occurring at
different times. The first diffusion mechanism led to an early spread of the
technique of the infiltration gallery in the Puebla-Tehuacan Valleys during
the post-Conquest period; the second diffusion occurred early in the twentieth
century. Each of these processes resulted in different patterns of distribution,
water use, and social control of the galleries.
Anthropos 68. 1973