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Paper short abstract

This paper examines dowsing as a speculative and care-ful practice through which groundwater is made visible and present across sites. Dowsers locate and interpret groundwater through tools, bodily sensing and environmental signals that are continuously calibrated and adjusted.

Paper long abstract

Within hydrogeology and other scientific approaches to water, dowsing is largely discarded and dismissed as a superstitious and cultural activity; something unscientific. However, in many groundwater-dependent worlds it remains a crucial practice through which people attempt to locate and make sense of hidden waters. Based on ethnographic research across sites (India, Peru, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Netherlands), this paper examines dowsing as an art of prediction: a speculative and care-ful practice through which practitioners make groundwater visible and present. Rather than treating dowsing as belief, we focus on what dowsers do in different case studies. By working with rods, pendants and coconuts; attuning bodily sensations; and noticing vegetation, soils, creature activity, and topography, dowsers assemble and interpret multiple signals and indicators to infer and anticipate where water might be found and at what depth.

Following STS and ANT approaches that consider methods as performative practices, we explore how dowsing knowledges across sites enact groundwater (worlds)l through signals and speculation. Herein we argue that dowsing is not only predictive but also a care-ful practice: one that is meticulous, situated and iterative, shaped through tinkering with tools, environments, and experience. We conclude by asserting that dowser knowledges on where to find hidden groundwater does not emerge from a single moment of revelation, but is enacted through continuous adjustments, embodied attentiveness, and collective calibrations. By foregrounding this art of prediction, the paper hopes to create space for more plural and attentive approaches to groundwater.