ABSTRACT
The military is actually a complex category; encompassing distinct segments defined both vertically and horizontally. To build a general picture of the military institution it is therefore necessary to select a reasonably encompassing sample, taking into account all the facets of the military segment with which one is working, and never forgetting the non-substantialist nature of all social identities. "Segmentation" should not be confused with "division", because what happens is not the opposition of groups of different nature, but of groups of the same structural nature reassembled as a function of special situations. The participation of individuals in each segment gives them a specific identity, but such an identity exists only as a function of the situations that activate it, dissolving itself in larger units under other situations. The researcher must thus resist the temptation of overlapping an inventory of elements, traits and rules of military identity with the morphology of the institution.
