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Atmospheric Pressure: An Ethnography of Wind, Turbines, and Zapotec Life in Southern Mexico by Stephanie Friede Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date: _______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Orin Starn, Supervisor ___________________________ Diane Nelson ___________________________ Rebecca Stein ___________________________ Peter Redfield ___________________________ Tomas Matza Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 ABSTRACT Atmospheric Pressure: An Ethnography of Wind, Turbines, and Zapotec Life in Southern Mexico by Stephanie Friede Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date: _______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Orin Starn, Supervisor ___________________________ Diane Nelson ___________________________ Rebecca Stein ___________________________ Peter Redfield ___________________________ Tomas Matza An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 Copyright by Stephanie Friede 2018 Abstract As one of the windiest places in the world, it is no surprise that companies have flocked to Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow neck of land connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Primarily foreign corporations have installed more than1500 wind turbines in less than ten years' time. While wind energy appears an ethereal, amorphous, and limitless resource, the wind can only become electricity through turbines that require vast tracts of land. The question of land ownership — a historical flashpoint in the region — has amplified tensions between residents, straining the already frayed web of social relations that have long bound this indigenous Zapotec community to one another. Many of the indigenous Zapotec residents are thrilled these once bothersome winds are becoming productive — as profits, job security, and perhaps their shot at progress. Landowners are among the most ardent supporters of wind energy development, tending their livestock in the morning, leveraging their land in exchange for more favorable lease agreements with executives in the afternoon. Opponents of the industry liken their boosters to an earlier colonial power, asking, "What are we going to eat if you turn everything into gold?" – depicting wind energy as merely the latest in a long history of dispossessions. For them, the wind has always been productive, an actor in their everyday lives: it awakens the fruits of the sea, sustaining fishermen and feeding their families; it causes illness and destroys property, and it conjures residents to recall iv the joys of living in this place. What Istmeños are aware of are the stark geopolitical realities that have brought wind turbines to their doorstep. In a moment when Mexico's oil reserves are dwindling and the state searches for alternative revenues, the case of wind energy development on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec complicates the utopian narrative that industry and government advocates recount regarding the so-called win-win possibilities for green energy development across the global South. What happens when the wind is transformed from its unruly natural state into a natural resource? Far from an isolated case, this dissertation draws upon broader theories of power, both electrical and economic, to show how individuals, institutions, and experts are laying claim to nature's force. Neither the fable of green techno-optimism nor a return to some mythical nature adequately explains the messiness of the everyday realities I observed. Based on more than 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I trace the generative possibilities of the wind, reconfiguring social relations through technological change. Ultimately, however, it is the imponderability of the natural world, its scale and power, and the very real consequences that efforts to mitigate global climate change are having in one particular place that I hope to convey in this work. v Dedication For what was lost when everything shook, September 7, 2017. and it's reverberations. and for Ruby. A stop along the way is necessary then. To ask ourselves where and how our ancestors walked. To find the echo of their voices dispersed by the wind…1 1 Macario Matus and Victor de la Crúz Perez. (1968). Translated by Anya Peterson Royce. vi Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures.............................................................................................................. xi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. xiv Prologue .................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 8 Santa Cruz de Los Lagartos ........................................................................................ 8 Wind as Method ........................................................................................................ 11 Setting the Stage ......................................................................................................... 15 Nahuales in the Alleyway, or on Infra(Structures) and Senses of Power .......................................................................................................................... 23 Mestizaje to Multiculturalism in Mexico ................................................................. 26 Being Binni Záa .......................................................................................................... 38 Indigeneity in the Americas ...................................................................................... 43 Measurement and the Making of a Renewable Resource ....................................... 46 Re-weathering the Anthropology of Latin America ............................................... 50 Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................... 52 Chapter 1. A Weathered World ............................................................................................ 57 The Season of the Tombs ........................................................................................... 59 The Wind as Agent .................................................................................................... 61 What Is the Wind and What Does It Do? ................................................................. 63 Meaning in the Wind ................................................................................................. 70 Colonialism: A Bet on the Wind ............................................................................... 73 vii River, Water, Climate ................................................................................................ 77 How Is the Wind Used? What Does It Produce?..................................................... 82 Marcelino's Fields ...................................................................................................... 88 Sacred Wind ............................................................................................................... 93 Chapter 2. Enticed by the Wind ............................................................................................ 98 Energy and Resource Nationalism in Mexico ....................................................... 100 Decentralizing Power .............................................................................................. 106 A Pact for Mexico..................................................................................................... 110 Calderón and Greener Futures ............................................................................... 111 Boom Times Blow In ............................................................................................... 114 The Self-Supply Model ............................................................................................ 117 On (Infra)Structures of Power ................................................................................ 122 Chapter 3. Tensions in the Air............................................................................................. 126 Value in the Air ........................................................................................................ 129 Mareña Renovables: Failure and its Aftermath ..................................................... 130 Fighting with the Law ............................................................................................. 133 The Politics of Consultation .................................................................................... 136 How to Play your Role? .......................................................................................... 140 Win-Win for Whom? ............................................................................................... 144 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 149 Chapter 4. Atmospheric Potential ......................................................................................

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