Violence in El Salvador
- 1 June 2002
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Ethnography
- Vol. 3 (2) , 201-219
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138102003002004
Abstract
This article engages Philippe Bourgois's analysis of the continuum of violence from wartime to post-war El Salvador in Ethnography (2:1). Acknowledging the utility of the violence model proposed by Bourgois, it contends that a general theory of structural relations and everyday violence requires mediating concepts in order to be usefully applied in any concrete situation, and that Bourgois has not supplied them. As a consequence, Bourgois's application of the model to Salvadoran wartime and post-war reality is excessively mechanical. Study of the unfavorable peace settlement, which preserved unequal structural relations, is probably necessary in order to shed light on the high levels of post-war violence. The shortcomings of Bourgois's analysis is further related to an over-reliance on personal narrative, discussed here in terms of the `testimonial function'.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- Empowered speech: Social fields,testimonio,and the stoll‐menchú debateIdentities, 2001
- The Power of Violence in War and PeaceEthnography, 2001
- From ‘Cultures of Fear and Terror’ to the Normalization of ViolenceCritique of Anthropology, 1999
- Childhood Malnutrition and Postwar Reconstruction in Rural El SalvadorPublished by American Medical Association (AMA) ,1999
- The Emergence of Insurgency in El SalvadorPublished by Springer Nature ,1999
- Hegemony in the Interior of The Salvadoran Revolution: The Erp in Northern MorazánJournal of Latin American Anthropology, 1998
- From Civil War to ‘Civil Society’: Has the End of the Cold War Brought Peace to Central America?International Affairs, 1998
- At Home in the WorldPublished by Duke University Press ,1995
- Promised LandPublished by Practical Action Publishing ,1990
- Writing CulturePublished by University of California Press ,1986