De la richesse des sanctuaires musulmans en Asie du Sud : la circulation des étoffes des saints

Abstract

The fabrics offered to Muslim saints in South Asia in different ritual contexts are an essential resource for the functioning of their shrine (institution built around their tomb), as providers of symbolic and monetary wealth. Initially, these fabrics carry an estimable value, that of the market where the commercial transactions take place. But, as soon as they are offered to the saint, they enter, a priori, in a regime of non-market circulation where their value becomes invaluable, since they allow to exchange a “little thing” (a piece of cloth) for a “great thing” (the miracle of a saint) and that they “imbue” themselves during this transaction of the potency of the saint. However, the life of these fabrics does not stop at this double exchange (merchant then non-merchant). They then circulate between different actors, thus continuing to (re)produce social relationships in the sphere of non-market transactions, or new monetary wealth in that of market transactions. The ethnographic description of the trajectories of the fabrics will open on three analyses: the types of transfers based on the conceptual framework of Alain Testart and Christophe Darmangeat, a reflection on the “biography of things” (Igor Kopytoff) and an analysis of the nature of goods in line with Maurice Godelier’s “surrogate-objects of men and gods”.