War by other means at the extractive frontier: the violence of reconstruction in ‘post‐war’ Peru

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the meeting of local and national reconstruction priorities in the wake of Peru's internal war (officially, 1980‐2000). I focus on the impact of the state's extractivism‐led agenda on indigenous Asháninka people's projects of remaking themselves into Asháninka sanori (‘real Asháninka people’). Taking an Asháninka sanori‐centred analysis of their experience of war and post‐war violence, I propose an approach to understanding the impact of mainstream reconstruction efforts on survivors that centres on the latter's articulations of personhood. This approach, possible through ethnographic engagement, sets anthropology at the forefront of the necessary rethinking of mainstream reconstruction interventions to foster approaches that are supportive of survivors’ priorities. The article explores a continuum of violence through war and extractivism that is undoing the networks of relations through which a group of survivors constitute themselves as people and communities and set their aspirations for the future.