Wow, Dan - everything comes full circle.  I respect your interpretation of the
dog tags as an "informant" but I was also wondering if maybe they were a
form of scarification symbol (for those that didn't lose a limb).  To symbolize
the inner wounds that outsiders don't see.  More psychological than
Marxist, but if there's any truth to this interpretation, perhaps on occassion
those old plantation tokens could have served the same function.  A sign
to society that they belong to a particular "survivors" group.
 
-- Shannon