Memoria que crea identidad en la diversidad

One of the first things that struck me when I observed the Portuguese Scouts at the summer camp was the ongoing and sibling-like quarrelling among girls and boys – quite different from the Russian boys’ gentleness, the Slovak boys’ contempt and the Danish boys’ indifference to the girls. There may be more than one reason for this. As we have already seen, the boys’ patrol and the mixed patrol really mirrored the general Portuguese gender arrangements in their interaction: the women preferably stay home and have control over the household, while the men leave as soon as they can to fraternise with other men. Small boys sit on the edge between these two worlds. Maybe these children were simply doing gender the Portuguese way, and lived in what has been characterised above as the ‘conflict between man’s right to rule and women’s effective power’ (cf. section 1.2). The rhetoric masculinity and the strict, motherly, control fit into this. Another explanation, which is not necessarily an alternative one, but may add fuel to the flames, is the particular age composition: prepubescent boys trying to challenge the maternal control on which they still depended. Sometimes the boys acted like little spoiled princes:

Dinner with the mixed patrol. Ana serves me a plate with meat, rice and sauce, and gives me a knife and fork. Hugo takes three pieces of meat in one grasp with his fork, while everybody else only takes one. He pours oil and vinegar over the salad, which annoys the girls - as not everybody likes vinegar. He ignores them and pours on more dressing after having tasted it. He offers me some salad. He also offers me another piece of meat before he takes his fourth

piece. He gets a good deal of attention because he has lost his voice, yet even in whispering he manages to dominate the interaction around the table! When dinner is over, he

disappears (it is his turn to do the dishes).

Show-off behaviour is a way to get attention, and perhaps the difficulty in getting into the girls’ circle may have reinforced this:

Patrol members of the mixed patrol and some other kids sit round the dining table, talking about the hike. Pedro, from the boys’ patrol, gives a dramatic account of their hike: they lost their way before the first post and messed around for two hours! He and Joáo went back by car. He is telling his story to Ana, she comments, the others listen. Hugo seems to get tired of listening, snatches a scarf from a girl and initiates rough-and-tumble play with another boy. He also tries to interrupt by making choking sounds. But Pedro continues his story and shows Ana on the map where they went wrong. She studies the map and comments. As we saw in the clearing-up episode in which Hugo teased Teresa because she had to redo his dishwashing, Hugo’s upper hand only lasted as long as Ana let him get away with it. The strong motherly figure and the absence of male backing seemed to be a barrier against the general mocking of women and female tasks we saw in the Slovak camp. In some ways, Ana could also be seen as defending Hugo’s fragile masculinity, for example during the hike. For a long time during the cleaning-up episode, Teresa (who, quite understandably, became angry), got no support from Ana:

Now Teresa has had enough. She goes to the tent, opens up the zipper and scolds the boys for not participating. Ana shouts at both parties to shut up! (...)The girls continue to work. Teresa is sulky and says she will not wash up after lunch since she also had to do Hugo’s washing-up from yesterday. Ana ignores this.

In the tent, when they were trying to avoid clearing up, what Hugo is doing is to teach little António ‘to do masculinity’. António is a newcomer in this respect. He obediently did what Ana told him, as we saw, for instance, when he did the dishes, and when he accepted to stop hiking. But Ana was less lenient towards António. Perhaps she, as we saw with the Slovak girls, is able to affirm her power more easily over small boys? This again may fuel their motivation to be like the big boys, as we saw with Michal in the Slovak camp (and maybe António on the next camp?). In the interviews (in which Hugo and Luis took the lead), António echoed everything these big boys said. We also have an an episode in which Ana was aggressive towards an older boy in the other patrol:

While I am talking with José about the hike, Ana has arrived and sits down at the table. She says something teasingly to him about his English, and he runs towards her, so the plates fall from the table. (I also feel irritated about this ridicule of others, which I have seen so often from girls at this age, and wonder whether she has now destroyed my good

communication with José). He does not return to me, but continues to talk with some boys about the hike.

Hugo, on his side, seems not to be content with just getting a little free space within Ana’s goodwill. What he is striving towards is to take over her authority. This was very visible on the hike, during which he constantly challenged Ana’s authority, in spite of the fact that she let him do all the exciting tasks:

Finally it is our turn to start the hike. The patrol is given the information, including written instructions and a map of the area. Ana reads the instructions aloud; Hugo studies the map. Quarrelling arises when she wants to see it. She is uncertain about the direction and goes back to ask the adult leader. (...) While we walk, Hugo continues to question all Ana’s decisions about which route to take, but she calmly brushes him off. At a certain point when Ana stops, because she is uncertain as to which path to take, Hugo runs ahead in the

direction he believes is right and sits down, demonstratively, ‘to rest’ while waiting for the others. António runs to join him (...) After they have completed the task at post 1, they are given a message to decode in order to find the next post. Fátima bends down so Ana can use her back as a writing desk. Ana asks for a pen, but António, who is the secretary, doesn’t have one. He is rebuked: ‘What use is a secretary without a pen?? What does he have pockets for??’ Ana works on the decoding. Hugo stands next to her criticising her: she’s using the wrong code! ‘Well, what code would be right then?’ Ana asks. Hugo: ‘I don’t know, but I know you are wrong!’ Teresa tries to help Ana. Ana does not respond to Hugo; she tries another code and succeeds in decoding the message. Inês and António stand by, watching her.