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The “rise to extremes” theorized by Clausewitz is confronted with the realities of war, which always seem to halt the escalation of violence. Even though violence sometimes reaches extreme degrees, apocalyptic scenarios do not come to fruition. In attempting to understand why, a detour via ethnology and anthropology will prove interesting. The investigations of Pierre Bourdieu in Kabylie and of Raymond Jamous in the Rif in Morocco describe a system of exchange of violence illustrating this mechanism of the rise to extremes. Honor is at the heart of this system, which is linked to another system based on the sacred and assigned with the task of stopping the escalation of violence. For René Girard, the sacrificial logic makes it possible for a society to eliminate an internal violence that cyclically takes on proportions that pose a threat to its preservation. In this “black” anthropology, honor requires the interplay of challenge and counterchallenge that mechanically leads to extremes; only another violence, the violence of sacrifice, makes it possible to halt this mechanism.