Doctoral Dissertation Research: Determinants of Scapegoat-selection in Zimbabwe

0228412 Murray/Rodlach据估计，津巴布韦有超过25%的成年人口被感染，是世界上艾滋病毒感染率最高的国家之一。在指责艾滋病时，人们经常争论他们实际上无法控制的流行病的原因（贫穷、他人的阴谋、政治领导人的疏忽等）。相反，那些在艾滋病毒/艾滋病认识和预防领域工作的人则强调生物医学原因（性行为、母婴传播和输血）。这种对比是惊人的，也是有问题的。本论文研究的目的是在文化人类学的记录方向和内在逻辑的民间因果解释在津巴布韦和测试的假设的因素导致不同的社会亚群调用不同的解释。将检验五个假设：㈠一个人对当前政治越不满意，他/她就越会将艾滋病毒/艾滋病归咎于政治势力; ㈡一个人的社会经济地位越低，他/她就越会将艾滋病毒/艾滋病归咎于富人; ㈢个人越是认为艾滋病毒/艾滋病认识和预防的共同战略是在指责受害者，就越倾向于将艾滋病毒/艾滋病归咎于医疗行业; ㈣一个人的价值观和信仰与其实际做法之间的分歧越大，他/她就越多地指责价值观和信仰体系的监护人（v）一个人所属的网络越亲密，他/她就越相信巫术，并指出他/她的社会网络的其他成员是艾滋病毒/艾滋病的原因。 将在津巴布韦一个城镇进行为期12个月的实地研究期间收集数据（由当地居民和津巴布韦大学的社会学教师和学生协助）。该项目将对乡镇居民进行抽样采访，让他们参加焦点小组讨论，对选定的家庭进行深入的人种学调查，分析大众媒体关于预防艾滋病毒/艾滋病的信息，并对乡镇进行有代表性的抽样调查，以收集数据来检验假设。本研究将评估理论概念来解释民间解释模型的不良事件的南部非洲的背景下，揭示其跨文化的变异性。提高人们对艾滋病流行的普遍假定原因的认识，解释因果关系的动态和选择替罪羊的过程，对医疗和发展官员设计有效的艾滋病预防和认识信息具有更广泛的影响。这项研究将使他们能够调整他们的信息和节目，以适应他们的观众，从而提高他们的有效性。该项目还有助于培训一名青年社会科学家。

0228412Murray / RodlachWith more than 25% of the adult population estimated to be infected, Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of HIV-infection in the world. In assigning blame for AIDS, people frequently argue about causes of the epidemic over which they have virtually no pragmatic control (poverty, conspiracies emanating from others, negligence on the part of their political leaders, etc.). In contrast, those working in the field of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention highlight biomedical causes (sexual behavior, mother-to-child transmission, and blood-transfusions). This contrast is striking and problematic. The objective of this dissertation research in cultural anthropology is to document the direction and inner logic of such folk causal explanations in Zimbabwe and to test hypotheses on the factors leading different subgroups within society to invoke different explanations. Five hypotheses will be tested: (i) the more dissatisfied an individual is with the current politics, the more he/she will blame political forces for HIV/AIDS; (ii) the lower the socio-economic status of the individual, the more he/she blames the wealthy for HIV/AIDS; (iii) the more an individual perceives common strategies for HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention as blaming the victim, the greater will be the tendency to blame the medical profession for HIV/AIDS; (iv) the more an individual is experiencing a split between his/her values and beliefs and their actual practice, the more he/she blames the guardians of the value and belief system (God and the ancestors) for HIV/AIDS; and (v) the more intimate the network to which one belongs, the more he/she expresses belief in sorcery and points at other members of his/her social network as the cause of HIV/AIDS. Data will be collected (assisted by local residents and sociology faculty and students from the University of Zimbabwe) during a 12 month period of field research in an urban township in Zimbabwe. The project will interview samples of township residents, engage them in focus group discussions, do in-depth ethnographic probes of selected households, analyze messages in the mass-media on HIV/AIDS prevention, and survey a representative sample of the township in order to gather date to test the hypotheses. This research will evaluate theoretical concepts to interpret folk-explanatory models for undesirable events for the southern African context, shedding light on their cross-cultural variability. The broader impacts of advancing knowledge about the popularly assumed causes for the AIDS epidemic and the explanation of these dynamics of causal attribution and of processes of scapegoat-selection are their importance for medical and development officers designing effective AIDS prevention and awareness messages. This research will enable them to tailor their messages and programs to fit their audience and consequently improve their effectiveness. The project also contributes to the training of a young social scientist.