Unimagined Community

Sex, Networks, and AIDS in Uganda and South Africa

AvRobert Thornton

Häftad, Engelska, 2008

Del 20 i serien California Series in Public Anthropology

591 kr

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Beskrivning

This groundbreaking work, with its unique anthropological approach, sheds new light on a central conundrum surrounding AIDS in Africa and in so doing, reframes current debates about the disease. Robert J. Thornton explores why HIV prevalence fell during the 1990s in Uganda despite that country's having one of Africa's highest fertility rates, while, during the same period, HIV prevalence rose in South Africa, a country with Africa's lowest fertility rate. Using anthropological, epidemiological, and mathematical methods, Thornton finds that culturally and socially determined differences in the structure of sexual networks - rather than changes in individual behavior - were responsible for these radical differences in HIV prevalence. His study exposes these invisible networks, or unimagined communities, unseen both by those who participate in them and by the social sciences, and opens a new area of investigation - the sexual network as social structure.Incorporating such factors as property, mobility, social status, and political authority into our understanding of AIDS transmission, Thornton offers a fresh vision of the disease, one that suggests new avenues for fighting it worldwide.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2008-09-02
Mått:152 x 229 x 18 mm
Vikt:408 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:California Series in Public Anthropology
Antal sidor:304
Förlag:University of California Press
ISBN:9780520255531

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Mer om författaren

Robert J. Thornton is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and author of The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski and Space, Time, and Culture among the Iraqw of Tanzania. His articles have appeared in Current Anthropology and American Ethnologist.

Recensioner i media

"Makes a strong case." Nature "Readers of this book are given new ways to think about sex and behviour change campaigns." Journal Royal Anthro Inst "[Thornton] succeeds in showing the important role that anthropological research has to play in the field of HIV prevention." The Journal Of Africa

Innehållsförteckning

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Ethnic Names and Languages Preface 1. Introduction: Meaning and Structure in the Study of AIDS 2. Comparing Uganda and South Africa: Sexual Networks, Family Structure, and Property 3. The Social Determinants of Sexual Network Configuration 4. The Tightening Chain: Civil Society and Uganda's Response to HIV/AIDS 5. AIDS in Uganda: Years of Chaos and Recovery 6. Siliimu as Native Category: AIDS as Local Knowledge in Uganda 7. The Indigenization of AIDS: Governance and the Political Response in Uganda 8. South Africa's Struggle: The Omission and Commission of Truth about AIDS 9. Imagining AIDS: South Africa's Viral Politics 10. Flows of Sexual Substance: The Sexual Network in South Africa 11. Preventing AIDS: A New Paradigm for a New Strategy Notes References Index