Aids and the elderly Tswana: the concept of pollution and consequences for AIDS prevention.
A study of elderly people in a village in southern Botswana is presented in this article. An argument is made for more in depth understanding of the role of elderly people in relation to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is demonstrated how Tswana indigenous medical ideology is behaviourally expressed in ways that identify elderly people as a group that may be at risk of catching and spreading HIV/AIDS. Through their position as respected members of the community, elderly people may also be a resource group in the struggle for AIDS prevention.
Ingstad
B
B
Section for medical anthropology, Institute for General Practice and Community Mediccine, University of Oslo, Norway. benedicte.ingstad@samfunnsmed.uio.no
Bruuns
F J
FJ
Tlou
S
S