Description
Book SynopsisSince its independence in the nineteenth century, the South American state of Colombia has been shaped by decades of bloody political violence. This book draws on interviews with paramilitary death squads and drug lords to provide a cultural interpretation of the country's history of violence and state control.
Trade Review"The ParaState delivers an important if upsetting (both of our emotions and our delusions) account of how organizations that operate inside and allegedly against the state can enjoy impunity thanks to the state... a sobering tale of the lengths to which the elite will go to render the masses supine and submissive." Anthropology Review Database "Well-written, in a direct and honest way, the book provides a fine descriptive analysis of the experience of an anthropologist doing fieldwork that demonstrates the relevance of considering the points of view of the paramilitaries in explaining paramilitary violence." Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue: From the Field Journal
Introduction
1 • “Everything I Did in the Name of Peace”
2 • Fragments from the Shadows of War
3 • Limpieza: The Expenditure of Spectacular Violence
4 • An Ethnography of Cocaine
5 • The Intertwinement
6 • Demobilization and the Unmasking of the State
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
