Sofia Gastaldo
2 → Functions of the Well
This project uses the well as a lens to explore the role of technological hybrids in shaping and sustaining community life. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) developed by Bruno Latour, the project investigates how non-human actors—such as wells—co-construct social realities alongside humans, forming networks of dependence.
Although modernity encourages the proliferation of such hybrids, it often denies their existence by reducing them to utilitarian tools. Yet, the well exists not merely as an object, but as an actant—a node. Without the community, the well is an empty hole; without the well, the community adapts, reorganizes, or fractures.
The well is a hybrid. It changes when the community changes.
Functions of the Well in the specific terrotiory of Atena Lucana as found in selected interviews.
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Territorial autonomy: each plot of land has its own well.
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Scarcity-driven competition: races to fetch water with buckets.
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Unequal distribution: some wells overflow, others barely drip.
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Manual descent: ladders used to access or clean the well's base.
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Regenerative labor: sand poured to purify and “give birth” to water.
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Agricultural sustenance: vegetable garden fed by the well.
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Domestic automation: a small motor pumps water to the house.
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Hybrid infrastructure: canal-fountain drawing from artesian pressure for household use.
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Protective modification: custom iron lid crafted by local blacksmith.
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Emergency system: electric pump beneath a concrete dome in the garage.
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Childhood opacity: the well was always there, but its meaning remained unknown.
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Social initiation: first cigarettes smoked around tall grass near the well.
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Intergenerational silence: children asked, adults never explained.
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Informal property: the well as undefined heritage or contested ownership.
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Land manipulation: surrounding area flattened to integrate the well.
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Rural refrigeration: fruit and beers cooled in the water.
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Dangerous threshold: low wells posed risk to curious children.
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Symbol of trauma: site of suicide, death, or mourning.
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Contamination event: dead fox in the well makes water unusable.
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Sealed hybrid: abandoned wells bricked up to close technological cycles.
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Persisting toxicity: even when full, water remains undrinkable.
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Mythological mothering: maternal figure catching a child mid-fall—acted scene, collective laughter.
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Protective legend: ghostly “well mother” stories to keep children away.
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Hidden mischief: cherries stashed in the dark to avoid parental discovery.
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Wartime layering: rumored German armory nearby, now a drink table.
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Rediscovered relics: Bibles and amphorae lost and recovered in its depths.
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Water divination: rabdomancer Tito digs 500 wells, starts aged eight, rewarded with ice cream.
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Technical burial: cementing the well after contamination or death.
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Embodied comparison: “if you fall in drunk, you might be fine—your dog will wait for you.”
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Familial reactivity: a brother walls up the well after a suicide.
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Inherited silence: the well remains as a mute witness to layered stories.
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Socio-spatial legacy: the well as a node between ancestry, utility, and forgotten infrastructures.
Bibliographic References (selected):
Bruno Latour & Madeleine Akrich, Vocabolario di semiotica dei concatenamenti di umani e non umani
Bruno Latour, Cogitamus. Six Letters on Scientific Humanism
Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life