In connection with an fieldwork in Algeria that, for nearly a decade, has been experiencing murderous violence the author undertakes to show how an anthropologist can attempt to uncover a logic in the surrounding chaos. In a conflict in which a statement constitutes a fundamental risk and a personal opinion a heresy threatened by death the work of the researcher, though difficult, is not impossible. The article tries to depict the motivations, the stakes and anxieties, and the risks such work entails.