AIDS, Behavior, and Culture - 9781598744798

"There has been a paradigm shift in recent years away from viewing AIDS prevention in Africa purely as technology transfer, toward understanding HIV prevention more as an issue of behavior change within the context of culture. This valuable book by Green and Ruark pulls together empirical data and presents the argument for sustainable, low-cost, culturally appropriate AIDS prevention in the generalized `hyper epidemics' of Africa."---Dr. David Wilson

"Green and Ruark present compelling evidence that new and innovative approaches are called for if the HIV pandemic is to be managed. Their anthropological perspective gives the reader insight and perspective that conventional wisdom simply does not allow: they propose that interventions should start where the target audiences are, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and physically. This is a very courageous book that anyone involved in behavior change needs to read. I for one wished I had read a book like this before starting my personal journey with HIV 28 years ago, as I would have done many things differently."---David Patient, Positive Living, South Africa

"AIDS, Behavior, and Culture should be on every Africanist medical anthropology reading list. Edward Green, an anthropologist with long background in field research and an established record of insightful publications on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, teams up in this book with a rising young epidemiologist to argue convincingly and with fresh research evidence for the importance of behavioral change in coming to grips with the still spreading HIV/AIDS epidemic."---John M. Janzen, University of Kansas - Lawrence

AIDS, Behavior, and Culture presents a bold challenge to the prevailing wisdom of "the global AIDS industry" and offers an alterative framework for understanding what works in HIV prevention. Arguing for a behavior-based approach, Green and Ruark make the case that the most effective programs are those that encourage fundamental behavioral changes such as faithfulness, avoidance of concurrent or overlapping sexual partners, delay of age of first sex, and complete recovery from drug addiction. Successful programs are locally based, tow cost, low tech, innovative, and built on existing cultural structures, in contrast, they argue that anthropologists and public health practitioners focus on counseling, testing, condoms, and treatment, and impose their Western values, culture, and political ideologies in an attempt to "liberate" non-Western people from sexual repression and homophobia. This provocative book is essential reading for anyone working in HIV/AIDS prevention, and a stimulating introduction to the key controversies and approaches in global health and medical anthropology for students and general readers.