The elite of the Army

Abstract

The article starting point is the question about the impacts of a social context, characterized by profound and accelerated transformations, in an institution defined by austerity and traditionalism. In the selected case, the Brazilian Army is analyzed and we work with the hypothesis that this institution, so identifiable with these ingrained characteristics, maintains its organization, structure and traditional attributes due to the actions of its elite group, fundamentally the so-called Academy officers of the Academia Militar das Agulhas (Negras Military Academy of Agulhas Negras, shortened as AMAN). We conclude that the training offered by AMAN and the presence of this elite group generates a sense of cohesion in the Brazilian Army, so that its members, in an intergenerational way, share and identify themselves through their common life trajectories.