Beyond Legal Pluralism: Cosmopolitical Ethnography Of the Peasant Patrols in the Peruvian Andes

Abstract

The Rondas campesinas (Peasant Patrols) are rural organizations that ensure the safety of communities through night watch, justice and local rural political management in the Andean region of Cajamarca (Peru). They have been mainly studied as an expression of legal pluralism. In contrast, this article propose a cosmopolitan ethnography of these organizations, taking into account the non-humans/magical beings that the peasants encounter during their night watch and the relationship between the Rondas campesinas and ‘witches’. The article show that Peasant Patrols have eroded the space of the other-than-human by keeping the night watch and that they have also reduce the power of the “brujos”. By doing so, the Peasant Patrols not only transform the way legal and political administration en los Andes peruanos but also redefine the contours of the human and the other-tan-human world in the rural communities