Patrons and petits patrons : knowledge and hierarchy in illicit networks of trade in archaeological objects in the Baniko region of Mali

This article focuses on the hierarchical relationships governing the local illicit trading networks in terracotta antiquities in the region of Baniko, in Mali. The level of authority and social control at the heart of the network lessens with each link in the chain, as a result of the monopoly and the fragmentation of knowledge. The article demonstrates that the social organisation of the network corresponds to a hierarchical habitus that ensures that the status quo of the dominant actors (urban antique dealers, rural antique dealers and intermediaries) is maintained through the economic dependence of the rural diggers, the monopoly of information and control of the network. Analysis of the first links in the network shows that action by rural intermediaries in the chain with respect to the weak links in the chain (the rural diggers) reproduces ‘micropolitics of power’ that are modelled on the same strategies of compartmentalisation of the local links, as used by the dominant actors on the rural intermediaries.