"One of many social phenomena that emerged from the civil war between Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian military is the peasant militia, called rondas campesinas. This ethnographic work on several rondas campesinas in the highlands of Piura examines the nature of these rondas: whether they are creations of the military and therefore pawns to be used against the people, or an expression of popular movement and part of the construction of a civil society"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.