Campaneando : Surveilling With the Dead in Bogotá’s Drug Markets
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article offers a literary ethnography of one of Bogotá’s ollas or drug markets where centuries of violence ripple across the ambiance. It tells the story of the work undertaken by the campaneros , the lookouts who work for criminal governance to protect the olla , and how they cultivate collective attunements for surveilling the place. To perceive, intuit, or forebode threats, the campaneros create a sentineled structure that communicates across corners, while also drawing on drug‐induced states of paranoia, clairvoyance, or necromancy. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork (2012–2018) and methods of fabulation, I propose a necromantic ethnography that, by constellating multiple sources, perspectives, forces, and voices, aims to conjure the resonating and palpable force of history and the dead across the olla .
Fields of Study & Subjects
Crime
Illicit Activities
and Governance
Latin American Literature Studies
Conflict
Peace
and Violence in Colombia
Publication details
- Journal / source
- American Anthropologist
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Volume
- 128
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 572–580
- Publication date
- 3 July 2026
- Language
- EN