Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the legacy of violence in rural communities of one of the most affected areas by the armed conflict between the Maoist guerrilla of Shinning Path and the Peruvian state (1980-2000), the basin of the river Qaracha in the southern highland region of Ayacucho.

Paper long abstract:

The basin of the river Qaracha is a highland rural area characterised by the presence of peasant communities with very rich Andean traditions, and very poor socio-economic conditions. During the 1980s, this area was much affected by the armed conflict between Shinning Path and the Peruvian army, which radically altered the life and culture of local communities as a result of massive violence, deaths, and displacements. On the basis of extensive ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in this area in the late-2000s, the paper explores the legacy of the armed conflict on local communities, particularly focusing on how their traditional organisation and culture have been affected, and how the role of the state has changed there since then due to the conflict. It is explained how many aspects of local traditions changed or disappeared in the context of violence, and how some of them have been -at least partially- recovered or readapted since then, contributing to the reinvention of local cultures and to a flexibilisation of local societies. It is also explained how the conflict brought an increasing state intervention in these communities, and how this state intervention has become a major motor of change in a context of -and in combination with- wider social changes in recent years. As a conclusion, it is argued that the armed conflict has been a key historical turning point for these communities, which has determinately influenced their evolution since then.