Anthropology Lecture on HIV/AIDS Prevention

Rationalist and Structuralist Discourses in HIV/AIDS Prevention in Tanzania

By Christina Higins (Department of Second Language Studies)

In this presentation, Higgins explores the presence of rationalist and structuralist discourses in educational events sponsored by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that target HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. The rationalist perspective (subscribed to by foreign donors such as USAID and UNICEF) treats knowledge as the missing component for social change and positions individuals as people who can control their own actions. Public health researchers, international education scholars, and medical anthropologists taking a structuralist perspective have critiqued this view by noting that those who are at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS are faced with seemingly insurmountable structural challenges such as poverty and gender inequality. Using methods from ethnography and discourse analysis, Higgins examines the discursive construction of knowledge and human agency in life skills classes with urban youth and home-based care workshops with traditional healers. Both settings reveal a strong presence of rationalist discourses towards empowerment; they also demonstrate the limits of this perspective in creating space for effective education and for effecting wider changes in Tanzania.

Event Sponsor
Anthropology, UH

More Information
956-8415, anthprog@hawaii.edu

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