The various rural collectivities existing in Peru and Latin America adopt different names depending on the era and the point of enunciation: indigenous, peasant, native, and riverside communities, ejidos, ethnic groups, native peoples, and other designations. All of these are institutions that have existed and persisted for decades and, in some cases, centuries. Recognized with different legal statuses and rights under national legislations, many of them claim to be native heirs to traditions tracing back centuries.

However, their institutional forms are the result of a series of historical processes regarding land ownership and representation before the State. Groups of indigenous, mestizo, or Afro-descendant origin manage their political institutions of government and self-representation as well as resource management, responding to changing economic, legal, and political contexts.

Thus, all rural collectives have an origin, a history, and have experienced processes of transformation over time. We understand "communalization processes" as the series of processes that establish the rules and commitments shaping communities, as well as their rights and obligations toward themselves. In many cases, these also include the contingencies imposed on them by the State or other external actors. Migration, climate change, market expansion and the neoliberal economy, changes in national legislation, and the emergence of new extractive activities or industries have generated medium-term transformation processes within communities, altering their rules and institutions.
We invite the submission of academic articles that analyze transformation processes in specific communities over time. Furthermore, we seek papers that develop an anthropological analysis of the processes of formation, transformation, or continuity of indigenous and peasant collectives across diverse regions and countries in Latin America. Submitted manuscripts are expected to demonstrate both continuity and change, highlighting the logic of continuity as well as adaptation to new contexts and circumstances.

We welcome articles that examine cases of community transformation over time through an anthropological framework. Studies may focus on single community cases or regional processes, using either single-case or comparative approaches. In all cases, contributions are expected to go beyond synchronic analysis and delve into the logic of transformation or continuity processes, preferably over several decades.

THEMATIC FOCUS

The issue primarily emphasizes the following thematic lines:
•    Dynamics of "communalization" and self-government
•    Communal transformations in the face of extractive industries
•    Historical trajectories of land ownership and state representation
•    Impact of migration and climate change on rural continuity
•    Transformation processes in specific communities over time
•    Anthropological analysis of formation, transformation, or continuity processes among indigenous and peasant collectives in various regions and countries of Latin America
•    Logic of continuity, changes, or adaptations to new contexts and circumstances by peasant and indigenous collectivities

Deadline: January 30, 2027

Publication Date: July 2027

Submissions: anthropo@pucp.edu.pe or via this link.

Author guidelines