ABSTRACT
Speaking and writing about violence is ubiquitous, and all levels and kinds of violence generate efforts to put its experience into words. Collections of narratives about violence, along with the often incomplete and contradictory patterns that they constitute, form the bases of mentalities of violence. In violence, just as in language, the "rules" are not always followed: conventions are broken an, because violence is a physically destructive act, injury and/or death may result. Nevertheless, the fact that violence does not always follow its script does not make it any less linguistic nor does it deny that violence can be seen as a rule-based social activity. The invention of violence was built around a conflict between two general mentalities of violence: civilized and customary. The civilized mentality represented middle- and upper-class culture of refinement that pursued a behavioral ideal of rationality and restraint while custom refers to an older cultural figuration that accepted greater expression of certain types of violent behavior.
