AIDS und Verhaltensänderung am Beispiel des Gwembe-Tals in Sambia

Abstract

Knowledge of risk is no guarantee of risk avoidance. Zambia has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. Over the last two decades the Zambian government and international agencies have made major efforts to inform Zambians on how AIDS is transmitted. This article examines what Gwembe Tonga know about HIV transmission, and what they do with that knowledge as evidenced by behavioral change using data from a longitudinal study of Gwembe Tonga initiated in 1956. Knowledge that HIV is sexually transmitted is publicly demonstrated during funerals by the adoption of alternatives to sexual intercourse with surviving spouse to cleanse survivors of death pollution. That knowledge may then be ignored when behavior is not subject to public scrutiny and counsel but is motivated by immediate desires.