“One Who Doesn't Know War, Doesn't Know Anything”: The Problem of Comprehending Suffering in Postwar El Salvador

Many times as I was interviewing campesinos living in a repopulated community in El Salvador about their experiences during the war, they would comment, “They say, he who hasn't experienced war doesn't know anything.” This article is an exploration of that statement and the challenge it presents to the implicit assumptions in much of the anthropological writing on violence.