City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Unimagined community, sex, networks, and AIDS in Uganda and South Africa, Robert J. Thornton

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Unimagined community

electronic resource

bibliography

Robert J. Thornton

California series in public anthropology, 20

sex, networks, and AIDS in Uganda and South Africa

The anthropological approach of this book helps to shed light on a central conundrum surrounding AIDS in Africa - why HIV prevalence fell in Uganda during the 1990s despite that country having one of Africa's highest fertility rates, while rising over the same period in South Africa, the country with the continent's lowest fetility rate., 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

specialized