Everyday social dynamics and cultural drivers of women's experiences with HIV/AIDS : voices from Buhaya, Tanzania

Everyday social dynamics and cultural drivers of women’s experiences with HIV/AIDS: voices from Buhaya, Tanzania is based on ethnographic research conducted in the village of Nsisha in northwestern Tanzania. Like most households in this region, Nsisha has been indirectly or directly affected by HIV/AIDS, meaning that either household members have been infected by HIV/AIDS, or households have absorbed children from their extended family and clan who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. In whole, the tiers of research and the in-depth questions asked and detailed answers recorded yield four different cross-sectional analyses of the ‘ecology’ of poverty and HIV/AIDS in Buhaya: (1) one which cuts across social stratification within the community, arguing who has more social capital and how this affects their vulnerability; (2) a second which focuses primarily on food and agricultural issues, and more specifically – bananas; (3) a third cross sectional category which centers on climate factors; (4) and a fourth and final category for this thesis which cuts across age categories and focuses on the social variation of widowhood.