Gausset Q
Institute of Anthropology, Copenhagen K, Denmark.
Soc Sci Med. 2001 Feb;52(4):509-18. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00156-8.
The fight against AIDS in Africa is often presented as a fight against "cultural barriers" that are seen as promoting the spread of the HIV virus. This attitude is based on a long history of Western prejudices about sexuality in Africa, which focus on its exotic aspects only (polygamy, adultery, wife-exchange, circumcision, dry sex, levirate, sexual pollution, sexual cleansing, various beliefs and taboos, etc.). The article argues that those cultural aspects are a wrong target of AIDS prevention programs because they are not incompatible with a safer behavior, and because their eradication would not ensure the protection of people. To fight against them might alienate the people whose cooperation is necessary if one wants to prevent the spread of AIDS. The major problems of AIDS prevention in Africa are not specifically African, but are similar to the problems existing in Europe or America. Therefore, anti-AIDS projects should not fight against one local African culture in order to impose another (Western), but should rather try to make behavior and practises safer in a way that is culturally acceptable to people.
在非洲抗击艾滋病的斗争常常被视为是在对抗那些被认为助长了艾滋病毒传播的“文化障碍”。这种态度源于西方长期以来对非洲性观念的偏见，这种偏见只关注其奇特的方面（一夫多妻制、通奸、换妻、割礼、干性性行为、夫兄弟婚、性污染、性净化、各种信仰和禁忌等）。文章认为，这些文化方面是艾滋病预防项目的错误目标，因为它们与更安全的行为并不矛盾，而且根除它们并不能确保人们得到保护。与这些文化方面作斗争可能会疏远那些如果要预防艾滋病传播就必须与之合作的人群。非洲艾滋病预防的主要问题并非非洲所特有，而是与欧洲或美国存在的问题类似。因此，抗艾滋病项目不应为了强加另一种（西方）文化而与非洲当地的一种文化作斗争，而应尝试以一种人们在文化上能够接受的方式使行为和做法更安全。
