Culture and Sexual Risk

Brummelhuis and Herdt provide an intense examination of sexual risk and its cultural configurations heretofore missing from the AIDS literature. The chapters on Western gay men speak to the pressing methodological, conceptual and theoretical needs in HIV/AIDS research while providing an understanding and documentation of gay men's lives within the emerging corpus of lesbian and gay studies. Chapters on the Philippines, Brazil, Haiti and Africa explore the cultural, political and economic contexts surrounding the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS in these cultures.

Han ten Brummelhuis, as a Thai specialist with an interest in medical anthropology, has followed the Thai AIDS epidemic from its beginning in 1987. He became involved in several projects dealing with cultural and social aspects of AIDS in Thailand. Recently he studied Thai marriage and family, Thai communities in Europe, and the Buddhist potential for HIV/AIDS care. Gilbert Herdt is Director of the Center for Culture and Mental Health Research, and Professor of the Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. His most recent books are Children of Horizons: How Gay and Lesbian Youth Are Forging a New Way Out of the Closet (with Andrew Boxer) and Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in History and Culture.