Morality, Hope and Grief Anthropologies of AIDS in Africa [Paperback]

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has been addressed and perceived predominantly through the broad perspectives of social and economic theories as well as public health and development discourses. This volume however, focuses on the micro-politics of illness, treatment and death in order to offer innovative insights into the complex processes that shape individual and community responses to AIDS. The contributions describe the dilemmas that families, communities and health professionals face and shed new light on the transformation of social and moral orders in African societies, which have been increasingly marginalised in the context of global modernity.

[This book]&offers empirically rich and theoretically innovative ethnographic accounts of social life in Africa in the era of AIDS&The level of sophistication, the depth of the ethnographic evidence, and the overall coherence of the chapters are impressive.? ??African Studies Review

The introductory chapter, by Dilger, offers one of the best overviews of anthropological research available on HIV in Africa. It is concise, well structured, and to the point, successfully positioning HIV research within the field of anthropology and providing a historical overview of the emergence of anthropological research on HIV in Africa& Overall, this book should be considered an important collection, relevant for researchers working on HIV in Africa and elsewhere. The findings presented, although often quite particularistic, also have much wider implication for other geographic locales.? ??Medical Anthropology Quarterly

Although the book is intended for development workers and anthropologists with an interest in sub-Saharan Africa, it is interesting to anyone who wishes to understand the social and cultural context of the people of this region in relation to the dynamics of HIV infection&A strength of the book is itlÃ#