IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/cjssxx/v42y2016i6p1179-1191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dangerous AIDS Myths or Preconceived Perceptions? A Critical Study of the Meaning and Impact of Myths about HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Jonas Sivelä

Abstract

This article considers how and to what extent so-called ‘AIDS myths’ encourage dangerous behaviour related to HIV/AIDS. Scholarly writing and media reports have identified a number of misconceptions about HIV/AIDS in the wake of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. They claim that AIDS myths – beliefs, misconceptions and legends – affect people’s behaviour and are to blame for the increase in HIV infections. Observations made during ethnographic fieldwork among Xhosa people in two townships in Cape Town do not support the notion of a straightforward relationship between AIDS myths and people’s behaviour. The relationship between knowledge of AIDS myths and acting upon this knowledge is more complex. References to AIDS myths involve far more than claims to truth or falsity – in other words, to belief. This article attempts to understand the meaning and impact of AIDS myths in South Africa, to question the seemingly widespread assumption that belief in them stimulates behaviours that spread HIV infection, and to begin to delineate the much wider range of uses to which AIDS myths are put when they arise in discussions of sexuality and HIV/AIDS in South African townships.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonas Sivelä, 2016. "Dangerous AIDS Myths or Preconceived Perceptions? A Critical Study of the Meaning and Impact of Myths about HIV/AIDS in South Africa," Journal of Southern African Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 1179-1191, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:cjssxx:v:42:y:2016:i:6:p:1179-1191
    DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2016.1246225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03057070.2016.1246225
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03057070.2016.1246225?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:cjssxx:v:42:y:2016:i:6:p:1179-1191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/cjss .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.