The Sexual Economy of Women and HIV in Uganda: A Critical Biocultural Analysis

Authors

Ron Barrett, Emory University

Abstract

A lens of biocultural medical anthropology is used to critically examine host-parasite coevolution in the sexual economies of Ugandan women. These women are often informed risk managers concerning sexual exchanges in relation to factors of political economy, women's status, male sexuality, and the epidemiology of the disease. Alternative landscapes of biocultural adaptation demostrate that the longer term benefits of condom use in AIDS prevention can be substantially diminished by the shorter term morbidity associatied with the unfavorabale socioeconomic circumstances of Ugandan women. Unless health interventions are broadened to improve these circumstances, positive feedback between cultural and biological factors will favor increased transmission of the virus.

Relational Format

journal article

Recommended Citation

Barrett, Ron (1995) "The Sexual Economy of Women and HIV in Uganda: A Critical Biocultural Analysis," Southern Anthropologist: Vol. 22: No. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/southern_anthropologist/vol22/iss3/5