POLICY AND PRAXIS: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HIV AND AIDS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
| dc.contributor.advisor | Downe, Pamela J | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Waldram, James B | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Lawson, Karen | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Muri, Allison | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Ervin , Alexander | |
| dc.creator | Bennett, David Martin John 1983- | |
| dc.creator.orcid | 0000-0003-2255-8286 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-05-10T21:59:54Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-05-10T21:59:54Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2019-10 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-05-10 | |
| dc.date.submitted | October 2019 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2019-05-10T21:59:54Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | The South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is in the midst of a generalized HIV epidemic with an adult prevalence rate higher than one percent. This thesis focuses on on HIV and AIDS policy in PNG from an anthropological perspective. The research conducted in this thesis considers HIV and AIDS in PNG through two distinct yet interrelated techniques. First, I conduct a detailed review and analysis of the ethnographic and non-ethnographic literature under a thematic framework. Second, I utilize a discursive methodology as part of a critical-interpretive framework to review and analyze selected policies from both governmental and non-governmental sources at the national, bilateral, and multilateral level. This grounded methodology allows for the analysis of discourse through a critical process of memoing and inductive analysis of the policy artefacts. I seek to determine the constituent discourses and themes found in PNG’s HIV and AIDS policy documents. Three primary themes emerged from the analysis. Firstly, there is a clear recognition that HIV and AIDS causes adverse effects across PNG’s society. These adverse effects are often segmented across various sectors of society, as represented by economic effects and development indicators. Direct human costs are often noted as being secondary to these economic and developmental impacts. Secondly, there is a diffusion of responsibility in responses to the epidemic. Subordinate to the primary tropes, but fitting within this dyadic conceptualization, are factors such as stigma, discrimination and gender. Finally, the use of technocratic rhetoric —a combination of medico-scientific terminology and development jargon – obscures the cultural dynamics of HIV-related stigma and discrimination. The examination of policy and literature also indicates the presence of an implementation gap (differences between policies that exist on paper), and how they were actually conceived and implemented (or not) in affected communities. This body of research adds to the existing corpus of knowledge on the topic of HIV and AIDS in PNG, along with the critical anthropological analysis of text. While this thesis stands solidly on its own, it also sets the perfect stage for more traditional and long-term anthropological fieldwork | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12092 | |
| dc.subject | Papua New Guinea | |
| dc.subject | HIV/AIDS | |
| dc.subject | Medical Anthropology | |
| dc.subject | Policy | |
| dc.title | POLICY AND PRAXIS: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HIV AND AIDS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.material | text | |
| thesis.degree.department | Archaeology and Anthropology | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Anthropology | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Saskatchewan | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts (M.A.) |