Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
11-2022
Abstract
This paper explores the ways in which infrastructural development can cause the sacred to become a source of political legitimacy, and sacred authority to become a politically charged construct. For resource-dependent communities, the ecological damage caused by infrastructural development can cause ostensibly profane issues to be imbued with sacred meaning and value. With sacralization comes the expectation that figures of sacred authority will campaign for justice on behalf of the communities that they represent. However, when the authority evoked comes from outside the boundaries of institutionalized religion, processes of suprasacralization come into play. By exploring infrastructure’s (supra)sacralizing effects, I demonstrate how environmental ontologies can provide a competing basis for transcendence. In turn, this can reveal the politically progressive role of the sacred in eroding the legitimacy of institutionalized religion. I illustrate these ideas through an empirical analysis of the effects of the China-backed Port City Colombo project on Catholic fishing communities located along Sri Lanka’s western coastline. Drawing on ethnographic data, I explore how littoral spaces of fishing, faith, and futurity have become contested through the claiming of (supra)sacred places of power and justice.
Keywords
Infrastructure, (supra)sacralization, environmental ontologies, Sri Lanka, BRI.
Discipline
Asian Studies | Human Geography | Infrastructure
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Annals of the American Association of Geographers
Volume
112
Issue
8
First Page
2344
Last Page
2359
ISSN
2469-4452
Identifier
10.1080/24694452.2022.2053651
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Embargo Period
5-22-2023
Citation
WOODS, Orlando.(2022). Infrastructure's (supra)sacralizing effects: Contesting littoral spaces of fishing, faith, and futurity along Sri Lanka's western coastline. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 112(8), 2344-2359.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3608
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2053651