Stirring Fish, Tiring the Water: A Multispecies Ethnography in the Highlands of Mantiqueira

Abstract

Why, through the intensive farming of rainbow trout, do local residents pollute the very region they deeply value? To address this question, I draw on a bibliographical review and a multispecies ethnography developed about/with a family living in the rural area of Itamonte (MG), in the Mantiqueira Highlands. I examine interspecific sociability networks that connect humans, trout, and other beings, describing everyday management practices, local perceptions of water, and tensions surrounding categories such as native/exotic, dirt, and “tired water.” Engaging with contemporary Anthropocene debates, I discuss how the intensification of trout farming reorganizes ecological relations in the region, making more porous the boundaries between local categories such as “criação” (domestic animals), “bichos do mato” (wild animals), domestication, and feralization. In sum, the article approaches water pollution through the native categories mobilized by my interlocutors, showing how situated ways of knowing and living with fish, rivers, and mountains unsettle dominant technical-legal frameworks.