Unimagined community : sex, networks, and AIDS in Uganda and South Africa

Author(s)

    • Thornton, Robert J.

Bibliographic Information

Unimagined community : sex, networks, and AIDS in Uganda and South Africa

Robert J. Thornton

(California series in public anthropology, 20)

University of California Press, c2008

  • : pbk
  • : cloth

Available at  / 8 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-274) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: cloth ISBN 9780520255524

Description

This groundbreaking work, with its unique anthropological approach, sheds new light on a central conundrum surrounding AIDS in Africa. 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, the country with Africa's lowest fertility rate. 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. Incorporating such factors as property, mobility, social status, and political authority into our understanding of AIDS transmission, Thornton's analysis also suggests new avenues for fighting the disease worldwide.

Table of Contents

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
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780520255531

Description

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.

Table of Contents

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

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