Abstract
Towards the end of the 1960s, Latin American social academics explains the political and economic situation of the subcontinent through the theory of domination-dependence. The internal situation of countries was explained in terms of “internal domination.” In this context, a group of Peruvian anthropologists developed a series of concepts to explain the processes experienced in rural and indigenous Peruvian society. The “triangle without a base,” the “arboreal structure of rural society,” the “colonial matrix of indigenous communities,” the “illusion of race,” and “cholificación” provided a different explanation of rural society, surpassing indigenist interpretations and debating Marxist positions. Although largely displaced by the processes generated by the Agrarian Reform, their analysis allows for an examination of the relationships between concepts and their links to the evolution of society. Some concepts were surpassed by better and more informed interpretations, while others were displaced by new processes experienced in society. Together, they represent an important moment in Peruvian anthropology and provide analytical tools that remain useful for social reflection and analysis.