Transactional Sex and the Pursuit of Modernity

This paper explores meanings and understandings of sexual exchange for material gain in an urban township of Durban, South Africa. The analysis argues against the tendency to assume too readily that all forms of sexual exchange are oriented towards subsistence, and not consumption. This paper also argues that sexual exchange is the means used by women in this study to pursue images and ideals largely created by the media and globalisation. It is revealed that transactional sex is perceived as ‘normal’ leading many women to accept men’s multiple partners and to put themselves as risk of contracting HIV/AIDS (despite having knowledge of the pandemic). Finally, the paper highlights women’s power and agency whereby women are asserting themselves in order to exploit sexual relationships in the interests of new ‘needs’ – the commodities of modernity

Demonizing women in the era of AIDS: an analysis of the gendered construction of HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.As the second decade of AIDS draws to a close, researchers and others involved in the AIDS effort have come to appreciate that complex interactions between social, cultural, biological and economic forces are involved in shaping the epidemiological course of the disease. Nevertheless, the process by which these variables interact and affect each other remains poorly understood, with many of the shaping forces yet to be fully explored. In South Africa, the sociocultural matrix in which the AIDS epidemic is embedded and its role in shaping the interpretation and experience of AIDS have not been fully analyzed. This thesis represents an attempt to elucidate the finer nuances of some commonly-held local beliefs, perceptions, symbolic representations, ethnomedical explanatory models and mythologies associated with AIDS. These associations are viewed as directly informing the way in which Zulu-speaking people are experiencing and responding to HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu Natal, currently home to 1/3 of the country's estimated 3 million HIV infected people. In particular, the focus is on the gender patterning of AIDS, with ethnographic data drawn from extensive field experience at St Wendolin's Mission, a peri-urban settlement in the Marianhill district of Durban. The shared perception of women as naturally 'dirty', as sexually 'out of control' and suspected of using witchcraft in new ways, are identified and discussed as key conceptual strands contributing to the sociocultural construction of HIV/AIDS in that community. It is argued that these notions are metaphorically joining and combining in ways that 'gender' the AIDS epidemic and simultaneously 'demonize' women. The central tenet of this thesis is that HIV/AIDS is fundamentally associated with women as a female caused and transmitted disease that can and does affect men. The author argues that the gendered construction of AIDS in St Wendolin's is a reflection of patriarchal resistance to women's changing roles and expectations that represent an overstepping of culturally defined moral boundaries. Deeply embedded ways of thinking associated with notions of gender are viewed as germane to the disempowerment of women that ultimately impedes the fight against HIV/AIDS. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the opportunity which the current AIDS epidemic presents for wider sociocultural transformation, and how this might be achieved through an AIDS 'education for liberation' based on the philosophies of Paulo Freire

Youth, HIV/AIDS and the importance of sexual culture and context

Twenty years of the sub-Saharan HIV/AIDS epidemic has impressed upon us the extent to which this disease is far more than a public health challenge. As it ravishes fragile economics, decreases life expectancies, increases women's burdens, generates orphans and decimates the dreams and futures of millions of people, HIV/AIDS has become nothing less than the most ominous development challenge facing the African continent. Contemplation of the sheer magnitude of the social repercussions brought in the wake of HIV/AIDS incurs the risk of crippling our senses and blocking the imagination needed for addressing this crisis. Indeed, the personal impact is sharpened rather than mitigated by the realization that this disease is, after all, almost entirely preventable. The poignancy of this simple but painful truth was clearly articulated in 1991 when President Museveni of Uganda declared to his parliament: 'They are telling us that a thin piece of rubber stands between us and the future of our continent!' (Museveni 1997). Still today, more than a decade after the time of that statement, many hopes for Africa are vested in that thin piece of rubber. Primary prevention through behaviour change involving safer-sex practices is still the most viable and potentially effective option for halting the spread of HIV/AIDS in these resource poor countries where affordable treatment is lacking (Davis and Weller, 1999; Donovan and Ross, 2000; Pequegnat and Stover, 2000). This paper focuses on the socio-cultural context in which the enactment of 'highrisk' youth sexual activity takes place. It is divided into two parts: the first examines the general body of research on HIV/AIDS and youth, with particular reference to South Africa; the second discusses some recent findings from ongoing ethnographic research at St Wendolin's, a peri-urban Zulu-speaking community in Durban, on aspects of sexual culture that enhance the spread of HIV/AIDS. Currently it is estimated that between 30-40% of the adult population of KwaZulu-Natal is HIV infected (Whiteside and Sunter 2000). As a whole, African communities in the greater metropolitan Durban area, and indeed throughout KwaZulu-Natal province, represent high seroprevalence epicentres for HIV/AIDS.</p

Assessing Apartheid's Damage: The Broken Marriage of Anthropology and Epidemiology in South Africa

South Africa is currently grappling with the problem of transforming a fragmented, apartheid-inspired health delivery system structured along racial lines. Cuban doctors have been invited to serve in rural areas where many South African-trained medical personnel refuse to go, often joining the post-democracy 'brain drain' as a result of dissatisfaction with government health policies. This paper attempts to bring to light a once very successful and highly innovative health delivery model that was conceived and piloted in South Africa over a half-century ago. This model combined anthropology and epidemiology and resulted in calls for a re-design of national health delivery based on what was called the Pholela model. Due to short sighted government policy at the time, the model was exported abroad (via immigration) where it formed the basis of several progressive health initiatives in various countries. Significantly, it marked the beginnings of social science and medicine collaborations that are still viewed as an ideal for developing more effective health interventions. The author suggests that this historic experiment at Pholela has much to offer in terms of providing a model that could foster transformations in both academic and medical service. JOURNAL OF THE PAN AFRICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION Number 2 Volume VII September 2000, pp. 137-15

HIV and disabilities: Time for more and better data

Qualitative or observational studies in the past decades have helped to emphasise needs of people with disabilities and to inform HIV programmes and policies. However more rigorous epidemiological data is needed on HIV prevalence in people with disabilities and the factors that put this population at risk of HIV and hinder their access to services

The ‘end of AIDS’ project: Mobilising evidence, bureaucracy, and big data for a final biomedical triumph over AIDS

Efforts are currently underway by major orchestrators and funders of the global AIDS response to realise the vision of achieving an end to AIDS by 2030. Unlike previous efforts to provide policy guidance or to encourage ‘best practice’ approaches for combatting AIDS, the end of AIDS project involves the promotion of a clear set of targets, tools, and interventions for a final biomedical solution to the epidemic. In this paper, we examine the bureaucratic procedures of one major AIDS funder that helped to foster a common vision and mission amongst a global AIDS community with widely divergent views on how best to address the epidemic. We focus on the methods, movements, and materials that are central to the project of ending AIDS, including those related to biomedical forms of evidence and big data science. We argue that these approaches have limitations and social scientists need to pay close attention to the end of AIDS project, particularly in contexts where clinical interventions might transform clinical outcomes, but where the social, economic, and cultural determinants of HIV and AIDS remain largely intact and increasingly obscured

Duo d' Il barbiere di Siviglia / del Signor Paisiello ; [chant et clavecin]

Titre uniforme : Paisiello, Giovanni (1740-1816). Compositeur. [Il barbiere di Siviglia. R 1. 64]. Extrait ; réduction pour chant et clavecinCollection : Feuille périodique ; 20Présentation musicale : [Partition