Ensnared by AIDS: Cultural Contexts of HIV and AIDS in Nepal

Ensnared By AIDS: Cultural Contexts of HIV and AIDS in Nepal Second Edition David K. Beine SIL International® Publications in Ethnography 42 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. David Beine (Ph.D., anthropology, Washington State University) has lived and worked in Nepal over several periods from 1988-2001, including affiliation with Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu during doctoral research in 1998-2000. He is a Senior Anthropology Consultant for SIL and currently resides in Spokane, Washington, where he teaches cultural anthropology and linguistics. He visits Nepal yearly for applied anthropology and sociolinguistic research.