Sexuality, culture, and power in HIV/AIDS research

This article examines the development of anthropological research in respon se to AIDS. During the first decade of the epidemic, most social science re search focused on the behavioral correlates of HIV infection among individu als and failed to examine broader social and cultural factors. By the late 1980s, however, pioneering work by anthropologists began to raise the impor tance of cultural systems in shaping sexual practices relevant to HIV trans mission and prevention. Since the start of the 1990s, this emphasis on cult ural analysis has taken shape alongside a growing anthropological research focus on structural factors shaping vulnerability to HIV infection. Work on social inequality and the political economy of HIV and AIDS has been espec ially important. Much current research seeks to integrate both cultural and structural concerns in providing an alternative to more individualistic be havioral research paradigms.