Anthropology of female body: site of high-jacking within the AIDS discourse

abstract

The female body, in addition to everything else it may be, is very much a socio-cultural ‘construct’, which has been culturally ‘performed’ upon for colonial, religious and other purposes. This article argues that the female body is also being highjacked within certain popular discourses on AIDS, itself a socially constructed and gendered disease. The article seeks to contextualise, within the escalating HIV and AIDS epidemic, an exploratory two-month study with Anthropology students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The study examined, through questionnaires and interviews, how female students viewed the discursive field of virginity and practices of virginity testing.

keywords:

• anthropology
• body
• cultural mechanisms
• virginity
• virginity testing