The Latin America and the Global research group presents:
Ana Vivaldi, “Argentina’s Military Service and the (Re)Making of Indigenous Masculinities”
Thursday, April 28, 2016, 3-4:30pm
Liu Institute, Research Unit (1st fl
From 1901, Argentina had a mandatory Military Service that each year compels a randomly-selected portion of the cohort of 18 year-old men to serve in any of the three forces for 12-24 months. The mandatory nature lasted until 1993 and was abolished in 1994, after the death of a conscript resulting from officers abuses (at present, service is voluntary). The obligation established for civilian men to serve in the military was a particularly tense and even traumatic experience during military dictatorships, especially the last one between 1976-1983, when conscripts had to be part or refuse to be part of “dirty war” activities. On another line, Indigenous people from the Chaco, among them the Toba, were the last to be incorporated to Argentina’s state through a violent occupation of their lands that was completed in the early 20th Century. They were thereafter part of the pool of men selected to do the military. While my initial assumptions were that the experience had been a very negative experience for Toba men, I was surprised to discover that Toba men who had served in the military had fond memories of this time. In this presentation I explore the experience of Toba men who have done military service and point to some of the reasons why it was such a positive experience.
Ana recently received her PhD in Anthropology from UBC, after successfully defending her dissertation Traversing the City: The Making of Indigenous Spatialities within and Beyond Buenos Aires.
If you plan to attend, please email mugarte@interchange.ubc.ca to get a copy of the paper in advance.