PUBLICATIONS

May AN Addresses Veteran Identity and Departures from Conflict

AN cover, May 2009 freaturing Master Sergeant Woodrow Wilson Keeble (1917-1982)Full-text May 2009 In Focus commentaries will be available here through May 31, and subsequently through AnthroSource. Share your comments on these articles through the AAA blog. Read more about accessing Anthropology News electronically on our archives page. See the AN homepage for information on opportunities to contribute to AN.

Veteran Identity

In experiencing, enacting and utilizing their identities as former soldiers, veterans engage with a range of complex issues, including their interpretations of military conflict, morality, nationalism and citizenship. The state very publicly engages with these same issues in asserting and fulfilling its obligations to returning and deceased soldiers. The articles below examine these negotiations of identity as soldiers return home from the front and, along with their governments, try to make sense of war-time experiences.

Rhoda Kanaaneh
Blood in the Same Mud?: Palestinian Veterans of the Israeli Military

Erica Weiss
The Deployment of Moral Authority: Veteran Activism in Israel

Conrad Quintyn and Sarah Wagner
Dismantling a National Icon: Genetic Testing and the Tomb of the Unknowns

Luis FB Plascencia
Citizenship through Veteranship: Latino Migrants Defend the US “Homeland”

Jill Dubisch
“Forget the War, Remember the Warrior”: A Veteran’s Healing Pilgrimage


Departures from Conflict
The period after violent conflict is deeply challenging for individuals and communities struggling to come to terms with how war has impacted their lives. As they resume everyday civilian life, ex-combatants, veterans, civilian victims, their families, and government institutions seek to move beyond the physical, psychological and social ramifications of war. This series examines these struggles with post-conflict rehabilitation, recovery and reintegration, and the ways in which those involved in violent conflict—in any capacity—remain connected with it. 

Kimberly Theidon
Pasts Imperfect: Reintegrating Former Combatants in Colombia

Alex Fattal
Diluting Demobilization: The Confluence of Counterinsurgency and Post-Conflict Intervention

Maria Vivod
Living with Dead Bodies in Your Closet: Serbian Ex-Paramilitary Reflections

Sharon Abramowitz
Healing in Peril: A Critical Debate over Ex-Combatant Rehabilitation

Seth Messinger
Recovering from Traumatic Limb Loss: Veteran Experiences in a Military Treatment Facility

Stefan Senders
Committing to Suicide: The Power and Limits of VA Research