Overview

Organized in the mid-1970s as a means of communal protection against livestock rustling and general thievery in Peru's rugged northern mountains, the rondas campesinas (peasants who make the rounds) grew into an entire system of peasant justice and one of the most significant Andean social movements of the late twentieth century. Nightwatch is the first full-length ethnography and the only study in English to examine this grassroots agrarian social movement, which became a rallying point for rural pride. Drawing on fieldwork conducted over the course of a decade, Orin Starn chronicles the historical conditions that led to the formation of the rondas, the social and geographical expansion of the movement, and its gradual decline in the 1990s. Throughout this anecdotal yet deeply analytical account, the author relies on interviews with ronda participants, villagers, and Peru's regional and national leaders to explore the role of women, the involvement of nongovernmental organizations, and struggles for leadership within the rondas. Starn moves easily from global to local contexts and from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, presenting this movement in a straightforward manner that makes it accessible to both specialists and nonspecialists. An engagingly written story of village mobilization, Nightwatch is also a meditation on the nature of fieldwork, the representation of subaltern people, the relationship between resistance and power, and what it means to be politically active at the end of the century. It will appeal widely to scholars and students of anthropology, Latin American studies, cultural studies, history, subaltern studies, and those interested in the politics of social movements.

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9780822323013

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Reviews

Based on ethnography of rarely-accomplished nuance and historical depth, Nightwatch is a vivid, elegant, and enlightening account of the rise and development of what has come to be widely recognised as the most important rural movement to emerge in Latin America since the late 1960s. Orin Starn has profound knowledge and understanding of both the Peruvian situation today and its recent and distant history. He writes in direct and artfully crafted prose, informed by the most up-to-date theoretical debates. This book will be of great interest not just to those who care about Peru and Latin America but also to scholars across anthropology, cultural studies, political science and history Arturo Escobar, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and author of Encoutnering development: the making and unmaking of the Third World Orin Starn's Nightwatch is the most thoroughly researched and perceptive study to date on peasant crime patrols and grassroots justice assemblies in northern Peru during the 1970s and 1980s. The book conveys cultural complexity in an engaging manner. Ethnographically rich and analytically astute, Nightwatch provides a remarkably vivid sense of peasant culture, politics, and justice in times of great difficulty Steven J. Stern, author of Shining and Other Paths Fascinating for any reader, and indispensable for anyone seeking to understand modern Peru Alma Guillermoprieto, author of The heart that bleeds: Latin America now

"""Based on ethnography of rarely-accomplished nuance and historical depth, Nightwatch is a vivid, elegant, and enlightening account of the rise and development of what has come to be widely recognised as the most important rural movement to emerge in Latin America since the late 1960s. Orin Starn has profound knowledge and understanding of both the Peruvian situation today and its recent and distant history. He writes in direct and artfully crafted prose, informed by the most up-to-date theoretical debates. This book will be of great interest not just to those who care about Peru and Latin America but also to scholars across anthropology, cultural studies, political science and history"" Arturo Escobar, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and author of Encoutnering development: the making and unmaking of the Third World ""Orin Starn's Nightwatch is the most thoroughly researched and perceptive study to date on peasant crime patrols and grassroots justice assemblies in northern Peru during the 1970s and 1980s. The book conveys cultural complexity in an engaging manner. Ethnographically rich and analytically astute, Nightwatch provides a remarkably vivid sense of peasant culture, politics, and justice in times of great difficulty"" Steven J. Stern, author of Shining and Other Paths ""Fascinating for any reader, and indispensable for anyone seeking to understand modern Peru"" Alma Guillermoprieto, author of The heart that bleeds: Latin America now"

Nightwatch is an engaging, elegant, and enlightening account of one of the most important rural movements to emerge from Latin America since the 1960s. Orin Starn writes in direct and artfully crafted prose informed at the same time by the most up to date theoretical debates. This book will be of great interest not just to those who care about Peru and Latin America but also to scholars across anthropology, cultural studies, political science, and history. -Arturo Escobar, author of Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World A wonderful tool. This volume offers a wealth of resources from a range of critical perspectives. -Steven Mailloux, University of California, Irvine

Based on ethnography of rarely-accomplished nuance and historical depth, Nightwatch is a vivid, elegant, and enlightening account of the rise and development of what has come to be widely recognised as the most important rural movement to emerge in Latin America since the late 1960s. Orin Starn has profound knowledge and understanding of both the Peruvian situation today and its recent and distant history. He writes in direct and artfully crafted prose, informed by the most up-to-date theoretical debates. This book will be of great interest not just to those who care about Peru and Latin America but also to scholars across anthropology, cultural studies, political science and history Arturo Escobar, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and author of Encoutnering development: the making and unmaking of the Third World Orin Starn's Nightwatch is the most thoroughly researched and perceptive study to date on peasant crime patrols and grassroots justice assemblies in northern Peru during the 1970s and 1980s. The book conveys cultural complexity in an engaging manner. Ethnographically rich and analytically astute, Nightwatch provides a remarkably vivid sense of peasant culture, politics, and justice in times of great difficulty Steven J. Stern, author of Shining and Other Paths Fascinating for any reader, and indispensable for anyone seeking to understand modern Peru Alma Guillermoprieto, author of The heart that bleeds: Latin America now

Author Information

Orin Starn is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. He is a coeditor of The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics, also published by Duke University Press.

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