AIDS and ‘building a wall’ around Christian country in rural Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This paper explores an ongoing dialogue about Christianity in light of the recent influx of HIV and AIDS into the villages of the Gogodala of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. I argue that a suggestion by a woman in late 2004 to ‘build a wall’ around the Gogodala region in Western Province in order to stop or slow the spread of HIV/AIDS reflects a recent concern with the sustainability of this rural Christian community, referred to in English as ‘Christian country’. Understanding AIDS to be a threat posed largely from outsiders, whether Papua New Guinean or European, sections of these primarily village‐based communities aim to create both a physical and metaphorical boundary between themselves and outsiders. At present, local prevention and intervention strategies concerning HIV and AIDS focus on conservative, evangelical narratives about the preservation of the principles and practices of Christian country, through the repudiation of unrestrained sexuality, for example, which is believed to be increasingly prevalent not only in their own area but throughout urban Papua New Guinea. A growing divide between rural and urban Gogodala, then, has become a major part of the local dialogue about AIDS and represents significant contestation over the practices and ideational basis of Christian country.

Women and HIV in a moderate prevalence setting: an integrative review

“…Wardlow in her work on men’s extramarital sexuality in rural PNG, also highlighted the link between economic drivers and HIV saying: “HIV/AIDS prevention policies and programs should specify and target the socioeconomic structures that make the choice of extramarital sex so likely” [55]. Men and women who live in urban areas and then return to rural villages are also seen as responsible for bringing HIV, creating a social schism between those who travel away to work and those who stay in the village [62]. This dynamic was similarly described in the Yupno region of PNG, with Keck quoting a young man as saying, “the men come and go…and bring this disease (HIV) here into the village” [13].…”

“…Cultural understandings of sexuality and reproduction are discussed at length in a number of the articles reviewed [13,34,55,56,62-64]. Cultural practices such as bride price can increase women’s risk of HIV by placing men in a position of power over sexual decision making.…”

Sorcery, Christianity and the Decline of Medical Services

“…Dundon 2010). As we shall see below, this racial framework is also applied as a critique of hierarchical relationships between doctors and nurses (Street 2011).…”

Negotiating the Horizon—Living Christianity in Melanesia

“…Dundon 2004, 2010, Eves 2011, Goddard & Van Heekeren 2003, Jacka 2005, Robbins 1998, 2004a. Exploring the The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 5 conjuncture of Christianity, capitalist development and ideas of modernisation among the Ipili in the Porgera Valley, PNG, Jacka noted the significance particularly of the concepts of heaven and salvation in conversion processes (Jacka 2005).…”