Marching for Progress: Rituals of Citizenship, State and Belonging in a High Andes District

This article explores processes of citizenship and state formation in the Central Peruvian Andes in the wake of the armed conflict through the lens of a public ritual, the celebration of a district anniversary. The celebration is a reservoir of practices from past forms of state formation and may be read as a claim for recognition as full-blown members of the nation-state. While practices of citizenship as rights are emerging, the celebration is permeated by the association between citizenship and civilization, with discipline playing a major role as an instrument of modernisation and progress.