Paper Short Abstract:

This paper takes an 'anthropology of security' approach to examine the afterlife of war in Colombia. It shows how the (in)security situation in rural conflict areas is shifting rather than improving and discusses peasant strategies to archive a ‘dignified life’.

Paper Abstract:

This paper takes an 'anthropology of security' approach to examine the continuum of violence in post-conflict societies and the afterlife of war from the perspective of marginalized peasants. Security issues are at the heart of processes of peace – not only, but also in Colombia. The termination of hostilities and reintegration of combatants is aimed at increasing physical and public security in conflict regions. Peace measures such as land restitution and legalization are designed to reduce conflict causes and insecurity, notably in the rural areas. Based on multi-temporal ethnographic fieldwork, the paper shows how the (in)security situation in the conflict area around the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the Urabá region is shifting rather than improving with the current peace process. At the same time, the peasant population developed peace and security strategies that have enabled them to survive the armed conflict and which they adapt to the transforming (in)security situation. The strategies are based on decades of violent everyday experiences and peasant notions of peace and security which are conceptualized in emic terms of a ‘dignified peasant life’.