Selling Water and the Disputes around It in Telouet Village during the 19th Century : A Traditional Water Crisis Management System Based on Manuscript Documents

< < ABSTRACT Much has been said about water, and studies on it are of particular importance, as is the importance of this vital element, since it has played, and continues to be, central roles in the history and evolution of human societies, as well as in their movements, migrations, stability and interrelationship between them. Water formed a material which many social relations and transactions were woven around. These are difficult to understand except by evoking the human relationship with water on the one hand, and by understanding that water have created deep relationships between people themselves on the other hand. Accordingly, this work shows how the element of water is present in the day-to-day operations of the dwellers of Telouet village, and attempts to explain all the complex social relations that this presence creates, and the extent of their impact on the various aspects of the social, economic and cultural life of this area, by analysing the manuscript sources/documents produced in the context of these two transactions (Selling water and the disputes around it).