Gravity-Fed Irrigation and Water-Wheels in the Agroindustry of Michoacán and Guanajuato in the Late 19th Century: An Archaeological Perspective

The study of haciendas as a model of agroindustrial production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Michoacán and Guanajuato, especially those devoted to the cultivation of crops like wheat, rice, sugarcane and indigo, has allowed us to come to understand that the hacienda functioned as an organic unit that embraced virtually every stage of the productive cycle; i.e., from the generation of raw materials through to the initial phases of distribution.

Each stage of the cycle was assigned its own space for development, but practically all of them had some relation to the use of water, either for irrigation or as a source of motor force. The installations required for water management (hydraulic technology) generated a characteristic settlement pattern the analysis of which allows us to determine where water was conducted by gravity to be distributed through the different spaces of the hacienda's lands and how production was subject to this mode of transportation.

Based on these observations, an ideal spatial model is proposed that makes it possible to identify the logic of each element built on the hacienda and of its location within that territory. This paper discusses several examples of the use of water through a focus on archaeological evidence from mills and irrigation works.

Alberto Aguirre Anaya studied his B.A. in Archaeology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. His Master's degree is in Architectural Patrimony from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and he earned his Ph.D. in Architecture in the Interinstitutional Doctoral Program in Architecture in Guanajuato. His research areas include the study of productive processes from an ethnoarchaeological perspective, the archaeology of production architecture (industrial archaeology) and proposals for the conservation of archaeological and historical patrimony. He is currently a Professor/Researcher at the Center for Archaeological Studies at the Colegio de Michoacán in the field of the generation and application of knowledge entitled "Economic and Production Dynamics and their Impact on Cultural Landscapes", where he has directed and supervised the theses of several graduate students. He has publications by the Colegio de Michoacán and other scholarly institutions.