This report extrapolates from prior research to propose a preliminary framework for approaching extreme groundwater depletion through anthropological analysis of what it terms aquifer aporias—the ecological manifestations of epistemic gaps about aquifer loss. Informed by two years of ethnographic research on aquifer depletion on the High Plains, the essay identifies how aporetic relationships among five overlapping epistemic modes drive extreme groundwater eradication across the Plains and other dry regions of the world. These modes include but are not limited to hydrogeological structures, economic rationalities, groundwater governance, technological remediation, and affective contours of belonging. The central argument is that planetary zones of depletion bear striking resemblances to each another in ways that allow and require comparative analysis. Grasping how extreme aquifer depletion coalesces as a general planetary phenomenon in turn requires bringing aporetic dynamics into a single analytic framework. Taking these mutually constitutive aporias seriously may also contribute to ongoing debates about the relationships of anthropological knowledge to the defining ecological crises of the contemporary.

中文翻译：

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含水层阿波里亚斯

本报告从先前的研究中推断，提出了一个初步框架，通过人类学分析它所称的含水层 aporias（关于含水层损失的认识差距的生态表现）来处理极端地下水枯竭问题。通过两年关于高平原含水层枯竭的人种学研究，本文确定了五种重叠认知模式之间的不可知论关系如何推动平原和世界其他干旱地区的极端地下水根除。这些模式包括但不限于水文地质结构、经济理性、地下水治理、技术整治和归属感轮廓。核心论点是，行星耗竭区在允许和需要比较分析的方式上彼此之间有着惊人的相似之处。反过来，要掌握极端含水层枯竭如何合并为一种普遍的行星现象，需要将 aporetic 动力学纳入一个单一的分析框架。认真对待这些相互构成的困境也可能有助于正在进行的关于人类学知识与当代生态危机的关系的辩论。