only 3 cops in Peruvian province

[Tim Cornelis]

In Chumbivilcas Province in Southern Peru, isolated and hidden away behind the mountains, reportedly, populated by about 70,000 Amerindians, there's "basically no police or military presence", or 3 officers, (Vice). What they do have is that festival where once a year, on Christmas, they beat each other up.

But it's an interesting case, it's a class society and probably semi-capitalist, more resembling the manufacturing proto-industrialised era in Europe, with independent commodity producers, and still there's supposedly basically no cops. It then becomes more plausible that communism could really be stateless to sceptics. I want more information on this. I invite others to look things up if you're interested, and maybe there's more Spanish sources about this, so perhaps some Spanish speaking people can look things up if they're interested.

But also:

"But don’t assume that means Takanakuy is no-holds-barred. Biting or kicking someone when he’s down is forbidden, and there are referee-type figures equipped with colorful whips ready to separate fighters if one of them violates the rules. They’ve also added police who stand by in case things get too out of hand."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1...n_6374740.html

that is all

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Yeah Vice has a documentary about this: http://www.vice.com/video/takanakuy-part-1

The way Vice presents it is that for one day you get to fight whoever you want, which supposedly means that there will be less conflict on all the other days of the year as people will just hold their grudges until the event comes around again. Pretty cool regardless of whether that's actually true or not. I really dig their masks.

[Armchair Partisan]

Yeah Vice has a documentary about this: http://www.vice.com/video/takanakuy-part-1

The way Vice presents it is that for one day you get to fight whoever you want, which supposedly means that there will be less conflict on all the other days of the year as people will just hold their grudges until the event comes around again. Pretty cool regardless of whether that's actually true or not. I really dig their masks.

Reminds me of the Purge.

I'm not that impressed. I had hoped how this would be a good case study of a community maintaining order without police, but I mean, Takanakuy doesn't really appeal to me. I don't want to brawl people just for the sake of it, especially not if people are gonna shame me into participating (which is often the case in such a small, isolated community). And the idea of actually using brawls to decide legal matters is just hideous. I'd be interested in how they settle crimes outside of Christmas, or if they have any other methods for doing so than "wait for Takanakuy". Though if people want to brawl on a holiday just for fun, they can go right ahead.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

It's been a while since I watched it, but I don't think their community is outside the Peruvian legal code that applies to the rest of the country. I think this is more of a cultural tradition than an a formal legal system. The reason they have so few cops probably has to do with remote and close-knit communities not experiencing a whole lot of crime to begin with.

[mushroompizza]

Perfect place for revolution is it not comrade?

[willowtooth]

this was shining path territory wasn't it?

Some years ago in Chumbivilcas, a highland area of Cuzco, former landowners and other usurpers were taking land from the communities. I spoke with some of the compañeros younger than myself and told them of the experiences of our generation, and they understood that their direct action could override the “law” which favored the usurpers, so they took back their lands and recovered “power” over them. This was only one of the many actions of this kind on a national scale.

A few days ago a community in my district held a rally in the provincial capital in order to reaffirm their power, having used collective force to crush a “legal” usurpation of lands under the auspices of the authorities.

It is thanks to struggles such as these that, with the exception of Cuba, Peru is the country in Latin American and the Caribbean which has the greatest proportion of arable land in the form of smallholdings.

http://sdonline.org/39/volume-19-no-...of-the-people/