Anthropology, HIV and contingent identities

Philip N. Gatter

Social Science & Medicine, 1995, vol. 41, issue 11, 1523-1533

Abstract: The paper explores the relationship between social identity and HIV/AIDS, with special reference to gay men in Britain. This relationship was first seen as significant since it might have a bearing on the spread of HIV in the population. Three major forms of commentary have emerged on the issue: (i) basic research into the relationship between sexual identities and behaviours; (ii) applied research on how to convert the findings from (i) into health promotional materials, and (iii) discourse from within the politically gay community on what HIV/AIDS means for gay people. These different forms of commentary arise from a diverse range of voices, within and outside academia. The paper draws comparison between different disciplinary approaches to questions of identity and HIV/AIDS, in terms of their relative strengths and weaknesses (for example, contrasting psychology with anthropology). An ethnography of a day centre for people living with HIV/AIDS is used to illustrate the need to understand identity from a processual perspective, so that both individual and collective identities are seen as emerging from specific historical circumstances and struggles. A dialogic approach to understanding identity, tied to qualitative empirical research, is suggested as necessary to understanding how different forms of identity engage with HIV/AIDS (gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation), and how the identities of individuals and groups are always complex, shifting mosaics.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS; anthropology; identity; gay; men (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995
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