ABSTRACT

This chapter situates the rise of e-governance and digital identity documents in Peru by exploring the diverse, powerful, and contradictory ways documents intervene in Peruvians’ everyday lives. After describing the historical role of documents in the Andes as materializations of law and “the state,” the chapter follows the story of a single illicit land takeover in one of Lima’s shantytowns to demonstrate the double-edged nature of official inscription, the role of documents in constituting citizenship and the slippery reality of “the state,” and the ambivalent identities and relationships that are forged around documentary use. The chapter concludes by considering how these longstanding documentary dynamics are reproduced through the rollout of e-governance and digital identity cards, as well as how these new technologies of statecraft might be remaking state–society relationships.