Ensnared by AIDS

Cultural Contexts of HIV and AIDS In Nepal

How people make sense of illness is, in part, culturally determined. Existing community beliefs and presuppositions are organized as cultural models, which “make meaning” of new situations such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. These cultural constructions can also contribute to the spread of the epidemic. This volume examines the meaning and cultural contexts of HIV/AIDS in Nepal, where AIDS is relatively new and rapidly growing. Until now little has been known about how Nepalis understand the illness locally known as “AIDS rog.” This book presents the first long-term field study of the cultural dimensions of HIV/AIDS in South Asia. It examines how Nepalese cultural models of HIV/AIDS are developing, as well as illness schemata that underlie these models. It is one of the few ethnographies of HIV/AIDS to emphasize the depth and diversity of the people’s view and construction of the emerging illness. It is also the only HIV/AIDS ethnography to utilize a discourse analysis (linguistic) approach. It should be of special interest to medical anthropologists, social epidemiologists, and public health professionals. It will also be of interest to cognitive anthropologists, cognitive linguists, and psychological anthropologists, because it addresses how people incorporate new ideas into established cognitive systems.