AIDS and Accusation and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime free trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn more
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a £3.60 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card
AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book
Start reading AIDS and Accusation on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame [Paperback]

Paul Farmer (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £16.95
Price: £16.10 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.85 (5%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.
Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, June 7? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £13.00   -- --
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback £16.10   -- --
Trade In this Item for up to £3.60
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £3.60, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.

Frequently Bought Together

AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame + Pathologies of Power: With a New Preface by the Author: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor (California Series in Public Anthropology) + Infections and Inequalities: Updated with a New Preface: The Modern Plagues
Price For All Three: £46.61

Show availability and delivery details

Buy the selected items together

Product details

  • Paperback: 338 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (18 April 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0520248392
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520248397
  • Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 16.9 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 335,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

  • See Complete Table of Contents

More About the Author

Paul Farmer
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Paul Farmer Page

Product Description

Review

"This superbly crafted volume is dedicated to explaining and refuting a popular U.S. Belief that AIDS came to the United States from Haiti. . . . Farmer has made an outstanding scholarly contribution to the 'anthropology of suffering, ' the assessment of illness as perceived and experienced by a patient embedded in an interlocking fabric of culture and history. "-- "Medical Anthropology Quarterly --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Farmer's sensitive exploration of the lives and deaths of the people at [the village of] Do Kay give his study a distinctly human face and an emotional edge.... The book is at the same time fiercely personal and coldly objective. The result is both moving and illuminating." - Science "Farmer renders a richly layered and nuanced ethnographic portrait." - Harvard Educational Review "This superbly crafted volume is dedicated to explaining and refuting a popular U.S. belief that AIDS came to the United States from Haiti.... Farmer has made an outstanding scholarly contribution to the 'anthropology of suffering,' the assessment of illness as perceived and experienced by a patient embedded in an interlocking fabric of culture and history." - Medical Anthropology Quarterly"
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
At about 6 A.M. on June 26, 1982, Solange Eliodor expired in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

4 star
0
3 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Paul Farmer is that rare creature, an American Doctor, who fostered in the totally materialistic environment of the market ecomony has looked beyond that and decided to make a real difference.He is a man who needs to be heard. A stunning read
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:  5 reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Reading this book will change your life 8 Aug 2002
By A reader - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Farmer's excellent historical ethnography of Haitian illness (as seen through the contemporary context of the world AIDS epidemic), proves the necessity of developing anthropological approaches to understanding health systems and implementing medical care. The diagnosis and analysis of sickness, disease, illness, and treatment should go hand-in-hand with the cultural understanding of local systems of blame, accusation, causation, and cure. Where most approaches to medicine are based on the "Westernized" first-world nations' understanding of the causes of illness (tainted as well, as Farmer shows, by systematic "blame the victim" and shame techniques), the adoption of these approaches in treating the illnesses of other peoples can be catastrophic. Three ethnographies make up the structure of a detailed historical inquiry )

The longstanding tradition of conceiving of illness through the lens of powerlessness shapes the contemporary lives of the people in Haiti with whom Farmer worked. Although they could see the effects of the illness, people in this region were obsessed with the cause of the illness, and felt the need to understand AIDS through a constructed narrative of blame. A deep belief in their religion led villagers to look for the source of witchcraft that could possibly be harming them, and elaborate stories about neighbors, jealousies, and rivalries flourished as a result. Any improvement in the standing of one member of the society (through wealth, status, relationships, acquisition of property or food, or political power through employment or marriage) adds to the structure of distrust and blame.

Farmer's book shows how disturbingly complex and deep the layers of mistrust, misinformation, and the effects of racism, are. Among the medical hypotheses for the probable exposure is the theory of Haitian sex-workers' contacts through gay tourists to the early strains of HIV. Farmer outlines the long history of Haiti as a gay tourist attraction, and Duvalier's encouragement of tourism as a boost to the domestic economy. Although the possible cause of the gay sex trade for HIV exposure has not been confirmed, medical establishments in the U.S. based their theories of causation on other factors, such as Haitian religious practices. These theories were, in truth, reinforcing longstanding ignorance and racist misunderstandings about Haitian vodou. Stereotypes and racial profiling of Haitian citizenship as a "risk factor" (one of the "Four H's" along with hemophiliac, homosexual, and heroin user), contributed to public policies against Haitian immigrants. Haitians' belief that they are being attacked by some evil sorcery in the guise of a fatal illness called sida falls into place amidst the context of extreme antagonism and injustice.

While reading this book, I was compelled to ask myself if there isn't some truth in Haitians' understanding of AIDS as the result of malicious sorcery. Haiti was the only American society to successfully result from the direct action of a revolution against slavery and colonialism. As such, the small nation governed by creoles and black ex-slaves presented a threat to North and South American colonial societies, which were firmly entrenched in slave labor economic systems. Historically, the threat of a repeat of the Haitian revolution must have terrified white European landowners. This terror of African power and strength has been passed on in a racist legacy, adapted to political policies and nationalist agendas, and still exists in ignorant beliefs about AIDS and its causes. Haitians believe that they are victims of a longstanding racist agenda, and they may in fact be right. Farmer's book begins to illuminate some of the complicated historical and ethnographic realities of the overlapping connections between illness and racism, and between causes and effects.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
One of the 4-Hs shouldn't be. 5 Feb 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This book dispels the common myths of Haitians and AIDS. It also shows very clearly the heavy involvement of the United States in creating the poverty Haiti has faced. This book makes use of statistics well, but unfortunately, at this point those stats are many years old. When Farmer wrote this book, only three people in the village of Do Kay had died of AIDS. Now, with huge percentages of Haitians exposed to HIV, the picture must certainly look different. This book is a geat candidate for a revised edition some time in the future.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Informative and thought provoking 3 Jan 2000
By Amber - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I read this book for a medical anthropology class and found it incredibly interesting in its discussion of the politics and racism involved in the US treatment of AIDS in Haiti. It delves into how the American presence and influences lead to and exasperated the widespread AIDS and poverty problems in Haiti.
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject

























i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges