The Real of Community, the Desire for Development and the Performance of Egalitarianism in the P eruvian A ndes: A Materialist–Utopian Account

The paper proposes a materialist–utopian perspective for explaining the persistence of community in the A ndes by drawing upon Lacanian theory and the thought of the P eruvian Marxist J osé C arlos M ariátegui. What characterizes the A ndean comunidad are not notions of belonging and identity, but the existence of a fundamental antagonism (what I call the ‘Real of community’). The argument unfolds ethnographically. Usibamba, a peasant comunidad in the central P eruvian A ndes, is known as a highly egalitarian and disciplined comunidad. However, a disjunction exists between deep‐seated aspirations of justice and egalitarianism and the particularistic interests of families and individuals. This disjunction manifests itself in a contradictory, schizophrenic regime of discipline and negotiation that produces ‘split subjects’. Desiring development and the staging of theatrical performances of egalitarianism enables U sibambinos to deal with this disjunction and to present an image of unity and determination. I conclude that the comunidad persists through ‘impossible political acts’ brought about by a residual but growing category of landless comuneros who constitute ‘the part of no part’, the uncounted or unnamed.