Treasure Hunting in Morocco and the Rise of the Echonomy

Abstract

This paper exposes extant but obscured treasure-hunting activities in Morocco which consist of unlawful, risky, and unproductive digging operations. The paper focuses on a community of kanaza (treasure hunters) which shies away from the normal practices of money-making to capitalize on an “echo economy” (echonomy) that relies on orality and hearing (success stories/information about hidden treasure from past civilizations). It is a community of socially underprivileged individuals who often end up mistaking the economy for its echo, speaking less the language of economy, more the lingo of its shadow. Echonomists, far from designating a new economic model, push the existing definition of economy to the extreme landscapes of signification, denoting careful management not of available but of unavailable resources.