Amarrados: How Precariousness Structures Inconsistent Care in a Residential Facility for Peruvian Older Adults

In this article I examine how care is enacted, justified, and contested in a precarious residential institution for older adults in Lima, Peru. I analyze how material scarcity shapes everyday care practices and moral reasoning, especially regarding physical restraint. The study draws on thirty months of ethnographic fieldwork at La Merced shelter, including participant observation, informal conversations with residents and staff, and embodied participation in daily care routines. Theoretically, it engages anthropological scholarship on care, biopolitics, moral economies, and governmentality, framing care as an ambivalent practice that sustains life while generating ethical tension amid structural deprivation.