The Affectual-Social Ecology of Cultural Artefacts: Illegal Markets and Religious Vandalism in Swat Valley, Pakistan

Muhammad Salman Khan and Sarah De Nardi

Forum for Social Economics, 2024, vol. 53, issue 1, 35-52

Abstract: Focusing on the rich social and affectual geography of heritage sites in Swat Valley, Pakistan, this paper takes an ethnographic approach to the complex synergy of the value registers of religion and economy and their role in the illegal antiquities market. We argue that ruptures like Taliban’s iconoclasm against the materiality of the pre-Islamic world requires a conceptual reframing of preservation, destruction, and looting within social and cultural frames of reference. Therefore, we reflect on how the illegal market of cultural artefacts in Swat is shaped by conflicting registers of religion and economy. We further examine how these conflicting value registers shape the ‘structures of feelings’ that shape and inform the preservation and destruction of heritage. To this end, we draw on interviews with illegal diggers and antiquity dealers, local archaeologists, heritage activists, and international experts on the Swat region.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/07360932.2022.2084440 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:53:y:2024:i:1:p:35-52

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RFSE20

DOI: 10.1080/07360932.2022.2084440

Access Statistics for this article

Forum for Social Economics is currently edited by William Milberg, Dr Wolfram Elsner, Philip O'Hara, Cecilia Winters and Paolo Ramazzotti

More articles in Forum for Social Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().