In a remote area of the Peruvian Andes, a custom called "Takanakuy" has been observed for hundreds of years: each year on December 25h, villagers dress up in homemade costumes and have, basically, a town brawl in which residents--after a night or two of partying--engage in fistfights with each other, with certain rules observed so that no one gets seriously hurt. It is a way to settle differences in a region so far removed from the central government that there are no police, military or justice systems available.