[Anthropgrad] New Book - Making Sense of AIDS: Culture, Sexuality, and Power in Melanesia

[Richard Eves]

Dear Colleagues,
We'd like to draw your attention to our edited collection due out in
June 2008 from the University of Hawaii Press.  Making Sense of AIDS:
Culture, Sexuality, and Power in Melanesia, the first book on the
epidemic in the Pacific region, presents original research on the often
surprising ways that people of the region make sense of AIDS. 
All of the contributors have carried out long-term fieldwork in the
places they write about, and have produced rich, compelling and
sometimes grim accounts of the often unforeseen responses to the
epidemic.
Male indigenous transvestites in Papua place themselves at exceptionally
high levels of risk. Health workers stigmatize and shun people living
with HIV in parts of Papua New Guinea. Politicians revile the sick to
argue for money for roads and rural development. Villagers misinterpret
well-intentioned posters in comical, but dangerous ways. The
international standard of abstinence, monogamy and condom use is shown
to fail in every case profiled in the region, but one. This  single
exception shows that safe sex promotions can succeed when grounded in
local initiatives and cultural values. 
Dealing in substantive terms with issues of contemporary sexualities,
relations of power, and moralities, the volume will be of interest far
beyond the Pacific. Providing a powerful background for developing 21st
century understandings of the tensions between sexuality, religion, and
politics in many parts of the world, it will appeal to policy makers,
development workers, health care officials, anthropologists, and AIDS
activists.
Gilbert Herdt says of it: 'This is a powerful and courageous anthology.
One of its great strengths is the powerful ethnography of sexuality .,
making it extremely timely. It shows that anthropology is alive, that
the work of culture in confronting the myriad terrors of an incurable
disease is daunting and fearful but part of the human condition that
needs reporting.. The essays are original and in some cases truly
unique. Making Sense of AIDS contains extremely valuable, interesting,
and important contributions' (Gilbert Herdt, Center for Human Sexuality
Studies, San Francisco State University). 
The volume contains a foreword, the editors' introduction and thirteen
chapters: 
Foreword, Shirley Lindenbaum 
Introduction, Richard Eves and Leslie Butt 
When There's No Accessing Basic Health Care: Local Politics and
Responses to HIV/AIDS at Lake Kopiago, Papua New Guinea, Nicole Haley
"It's Mutual Attraction": Transvestites and the Risk of HIV Transmission
in Urban Papua, Jack Morin
Fear and Loathing in Papua New Guinea: Sexual Health in a Nation under
Siege, Lawrence J. Hammar 
Why Are Kanak Women More Vulnerable than Others to HIV? Ethnographic and
Statistical Insights from New Caledonia, Christine Salomon and Christine
Hamelin
Buying Betel and Selling Sex: Contested Boundaries, Risk Milieus, and
Discourses about HIV/AIDS in the Markham Valley, Papua New Guinea,
Bettina Beer
Silence Speaks Volumes: Elite Responses to AIDS in Highlands Papua,
Leslie Butt 
The Trouble with Trousers: Gossip, Kastom, and Sexual Culture in
Vanuatu, Maggie Cummings 
Love as Sacrifice: The Romantic Underground and Beliefs about HIV/AIDS
in Manokwari, Papua,  Sarah Hewat
Smoke from Fire: Desire and Secrecy in Auki, Solomon Islands, Holly
Buchanan-Aruwafu and Rose Maebiru
"You Have to Understand: Some of Us Are Glad AIDS Has Arrived":
Christianity and Condoms among the Huli, Papua New Guinea, Holly Wardlow
Moral Reform and Miraculous Cures: Christian Healing and AIDS in New
Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Richard Eves
SikAIDS: Deconstructing the Awareness Campaign in Rural West New
Britain, Papua New Guinea, Naomi M. McPherson
Fitting Condoms on Culture: Rethinking Approaches to HIV Prevention in
the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, Katherine Lepani 
For more information and ordering please click on: 
 
<http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/cart/shopcore/?db_name=uhpress&page=shop/
flypage&product_id=5252&category_id=b3e6237d1b1b3b8594488ed1c40d0dfb&PHP
SESSID=c458547f3b99132b911609ff068c2035>
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/cart/shopcore/?db_name=uhpress&page=shop/f
lypage&product_id=5252&category_id=b3e6237d1b1b3b8594488ed1c40d0dfb&PHPS
ESSID=c458547f3b99132b911609ff068c2035 
 
With our regards, 
Richard Eves and Leslie Butt 
 
Richard Eves
Australian Research Council QE II Fellow
State Society and Governance in Melanesia
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra, 0200, Australia
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/people/personal/evesr_ssgm.php
 
Leslie Butt
Associate Professor 
Department of Pacific and Asian Studies
University of Victoria
Box 3045, STN CSC
Victoria, B.C. Canada
V8P 3W4
 <http://web.uvic.ca/pacificasia/faculty/butt.php>
http://web.uvic.ca/pacificasia/faculty/butt.php
 
 
 
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