Coming of Age in India: The Military and Israeli Backpackers

Abstract

Several authors have done research on the institutionalized Israeli backpacking trip, but the period of military service preceding the trip has not yet been given sufficient analytical attention in this body of work. Therefore this piece investigates the relationship between the military and backpacking as a sociocultural institution in Israel. Ethnographic fieldwork for this study was carried out during a 5.5 month period, beginning in Israel and following the travelers along the Israeli backpacker trail in India. In this thesis the complex interaction between the military and the institutionalized backpacking is seen to take place largely within two domains. Firstly, in the Israeli military-cultural complex the army is related to the institutionalized backpacking trip in several ways. Within this complex, the military as a social structure affects the habitus and subjective dispositions of those who serve. In relation to the backpacking trip, the army transmits a disposition towards siege mentality, and strengthens national solidarity, leading Israelis to form more cohesive groups in India. In the second domain, the army is analyzed as an experience which alters the period of coming of age in Israel. In current theorizing on the subject, the period of emerging adulthood is seen to consist of a number of characteristics. These elements are fragmented in the army. During the liminal phase in India Israelis attempt to rebalance this transition by incorporating those elements of emerging adulthood they feel to have missed out on. These results indicate that the period of emerging adulthood manifested in the backpacking trip is not only culturally specific, but has an adaptive quality. Future research could focus on the growing status of backpacking as a rite of passage in industrialized societies, as well as the negative subjective effects of military service and living in a warzone.