``Terror's Talk: Fieldwork and War'

My purpose in this essay is to raise some questions about what isinvolved in research on political violence. Since 1995 I haveconducted ethnographic research in rural villages throughoutAyacucho, the region of Peru most heavily affected by the warbetween the guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso, the rondascampesinas (armed peasant patrols) and the Peruvian armed forces.A key factor motivating my research was a desire to write againstthe culture of violence arguments that were used to ``explain'the war. The concept of a ``culture of violence' or ``endemicviolence' has frequently been attributed to the Andean region,particularly to the rural peasants who inhabit the highlands.I wanted to understand how people make and unmake lethal violencein a particular social and historical context, and to explore thepositioning and responsibilities of an anthropologist who conductsresearch in the context of war.