Communal Minute Books: Writing, Ethnography, and History of the War in Peru in the 1980s

Abstract

Abstract This article addresses how Peruvian highland society constructed a local history of the Shining Path war through its responses as well as the recording (and non-recording) of events in communal minute books. Through three case studies of communities in the mid-1980s in Ayacucho, it assesses the cultural and political reach of writing in the production of communal historical knowledge, narratives of the past, and collective identity. The writing of and in community minute books configures the boundaries of the war narrative within these locales, particularly during the crucial period referred to in Quechua as tikrakuy, when communities changed their allegiance and went from supporting the insurgency to fighting it. During and after tikrakuy, a great part of the civilian population openly chose a side and intervened in the war, engaging in acts of violence. This article studies how the foundational violence of tikrakuy led to the emergence of a new political formation and social order. It also broadens the discussion on the participation of the civilian population in the war and its place in wartime collective violence.