ORDINARY WOMEN AND SHAPES OF KNOWLEDGE - PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONTEXT OF STD AND AIDS

In Europe, as well as in Africa HIV-related studies of women tend to f ocus on narrowly-defined professional, behavioral, or reproductive cat egories. The research population for this study of symptom definition and treatment-seeking among women in Kampala Uganda, was defined only by residence in one few-income ''parish'' of that city. Its practical justification is the association of STD and HIV: effective treatment o f (curable) STD can reduce the risk of HIV infection. STD and AIDS, ho wever prevalent, are never the only things ordinary people have to wor ry about; their capacity for preventing, managing, or explaining infec tion is dependent on the range of other things that may be happening i n their lives. An analyst-observer's view is by contrast narrower, and the context of scientific understanding is different. This paper sets out an approach that stresses the differences between ''real people'' knowledge and scientific or professional knowledge about the problem, and between practical and symbolic levels of context. In the light of this approach the seeming chaos of what these women do-or do not do-a bout getting treatment for STD becomes intelligible. I conclude that t he contingency of context and the gap between ''real'' and ''scientifi c'' understanding combine to account for the normal inconsistency of s ocial data, and that the proper use of a context perspective renders t hese data intelligible.