IS THERE A DISTINCT AFRICAN SEXUALITY - A CRITICAL RESPONSE TO CALDWELL
IS THERE A DISTINCT AFRICAN SEXUALITY - A CRITICAL RESPONSE TO CALDWELL
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DOI：
10.2307/1160981
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发表时间：
1994-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
AHLBERG, BM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
AHLBERG, BM
在目前的艾滋病辩论中，关于艾滋病在非洲的传播及其原因有不同的观点。例如，考德威尔和他的同事认为，整个非洲都有一种独特的性行为，这种性行为本质上是宽容的。此外，他们声称，没有宗教道德价值与性活动联系在一起，因此基督教并没有成功地改变这种情况。他们在这一失败中找到了撒哈拉以南非洲地区生育控制计划失败的原因，他们认为，艾滋病毒/艾滋病控制工作将同样失败，除非它产生的恐惧迫使非洲人采用欧亚模式，其宗教，道德价值。道德价值在社会变革中的作用的概念化。他们不考虑道德价值得以维持和改变的内在表现形式、机制和社会背景，就认为基督教道德价值观可能导致性行为从（他们所认为的）非洲性行为转变为欧亚模式。在做出这样的假设时，他们忽视了道德体系中通常固有的伦理和行为矛盾。此外，他们很少关注西方社会的变化过程，在那里，基督教道德已经失去了对行为的大量控制。但是，即使我们假设内部矛盾和变化过程不存在，非洲的基督教化进程也从根本上改变了当地习俗，使其在规范行为（包括性行为）方面的作用脱钩。为了就预防和控制艾滋病毒/艾滋病的备选办法和战略进行讨论和作出决定，必须确定这种转变的性质和影响。本文试图这样做。它分为三个部分。第一部分是考德威尔等人提出的论文摘要，包括他们对非洲性行为的定位和他们对变化的概念化。第二篇文章提出了批评性的回应，主要关注性行为研究和基督教化进程的问题，特别提到了基库尤人的案例，最近的研究表明，即使在基库尤人中，性活动可能似乎基本上不受道德约束，但确实存在道德秩序。同样的研究表明了传教活动改变这种道德秩序的具体方式。第三部分提出了新的前进方向。
In the current HIV debate there are diverse opinions about the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and the reasons for it. Caldwell and his colleagues, for example, argue that the whole of Africa has a distinct sexuality which is inherently permissive. They claim moreover that no religious moral value is attached to sexual activity, and Christianity has thus not succeeded in changing matters. They find in this failure the reason for the failure of the fertility control programme in sub-Saharan Africa, and they argue that HIV/AIDS control efforts will fail similarly unless the fear it generates forces Africans to adopt the Eurasian model, with its religious, moral value.The article re-examines Caldwell el al.'s conceptualisation of the role of moral value in social change. Without considering the internal expressions, mechanisms and social contexts within and through which moral value is maintained and changed, they assume that Christian moral values could lead to a change in sexual behaviour from permissive (as they see it) African sexuality to the Eurasian model. In making such an assumption they ignore the ethical and behavioural contradictions generally inherent in moral systems. Moreover they pay little attention to the process of change in Western societies, where Christian morality has lost a great deal of its control over behaviour. But even if we assume that internal contradictions and processes of change do not exist, the christianisation process in Africa fundamentally transformed local customs in ways that delinked their role in regulating behaviour, including sexual behaviour. For discussions and decisions on options and strategies for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, identifying the nature and impact of that transformation is essential. This article attempts to do so. It is in three parts. The first is a summary of the thesis as presented by Caldwell et al., including their location of African sexuality and their conceptualisation of change. The second offers a critical response, focusing mainly on the problems of research into sexual behaviour and the christianisation process, with special reference to the case of the Kikuyu people, among whom, recent studies suggest, even where sexual activity may have appeared largely free of moral restraint, there was indeed a moral order. The same studies indicate the specific way in which missionary activities transformed that moral order. Part three offers a new way forward.