AIDS, sex and condoms: African healers and the reinvention of tradition in Zaire. NLM AIDSLINE Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

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AIDS, sex and condoms: African healers and the reinvention of tradition in Zaire.

Med Anthropol. 1992 May;14(2-4):225-42. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/93218495
Schoepf BG

Abstract: Condoms offer considerable protection against sexual transmission of AIDS. Yet many Africans who are at risk of infection reject condoms as unnatural. Data from Zaire have been used to examine this culturally constructed category in relation to sexuality, procreation, gender roles, class formation and international health and development policy. Much more than a simple transfer of biomedical technology is involved. Condom use with regular partners raises issues of cultural politics at many levels. Traditional African healers represent important social networks with considerable authority in poor urban communities. They are able to reinterpret cultural categories and endow behavior with new meanings. Action-research in Kinshasa was used to explore roles that healers might play in promoting change to safer sex practices.
Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/ETHNOLOGY/*PREVENTION & CONTROL *Condoms Female Health Education Human Male *Medicine, African Traditional Sex Behavior/*ETHNOLOGY Zaire JOURNAL ARTICLEKWDacquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome/ethnology/KWDprevention&controlKWDcondomsfemalehealtheducationhumanmaleKWDmedicine,africantraditionalsexbehavior/KWDethnologyzairejournalarticle
930730
M9370961

Copyright © 1993 - National Library of Medicine. Reproduced under license with the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.

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