The Agency of Monsoons in South Asia

Summary

Every June through September, the inhabitants of South Asia welcome and celebrate the southwest monsoons. The monsoon winds are the lifeline of this region but also a major threat, inspiring societies to devise mechanisms to both harness their potential and subvert the damage they may cause. This paper analyzes prehistoric and historical responses to monsoons in South Asia in terms of their unpredictable nature, and examines how the monsoons both facilitate and constrict people’s actions. In doing so, the paper compares societal responses to monsoons in the different contexts of rurality and urbanity, which each exert specific exigencies over individual and collective actions. In both situations, conserving seasonal rainwater is crucial to the sustenance of societies but an excess of that water can cause significant destruction. Poets of the past and the present allude to the vagaries of the monsoons, reflecting a society conscious of monsoons’ deceits, but even today, it is nearly impossible to predict how much it might rain, when, and where. The paper thus urges archaeological studies of water infrastructure to take into consideration both human agency and the agency of the monsoons.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22017