Doctoral Dissertation: Socialization Into 'Hope': Communication and Embodiment in a South African AIDS Support Group

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Graduate student Steven P. Black, under the guidance of Dr. Alessandro Duranti, will undertake research on how the verbal-kinesthetic negotiation involved in learning to perform in a traditional chorus is used to communicate and socialize subjective experience and community cohesion in HIV/AIDS support groups in Zulu-speaking South Africa. In South Africa, while HIV infection rates soar and public information campaigns attempt to initiate discourse about AIDS, interpersonal communication about HIV/ AIDS remains poor. In contrast, public discourse about "ithemba" (hope) actually obscures interpersonal AIDS stigmatization. Patients find refuge from stigma in support groups and discover hope through their interactions, negotiating the personal meaning of ithemba. This study focuses on a support group where Zulu gospel music is an important part of psychological healing. The PI will examine two non-mutually-exclusive explanations for how communication affects subjective experience, through language and socialization versus movement and embodiment. Methods include participant observation, interviews, and audio and video taping of choir rehearsals. Data will include (1) video recordings of spontaneous moment-to-moment interaction in the support group, (2) video recorded interviews with support group members, and (3) participant observation. Tapes will be analyzed to look for situational variation, code switching, gesture, and music and talk. This study is significant because it will provide insights into how music and language serve as cultural resources for organizing experience to promote psycho-cultural healing and productive community membership despite social stigmatization. It also will contribute to building a more integrated social science by fostering syntehsis across different areas of theory, including linguistics, cultural anthropology, and medical and psychological anthropology. The research also will contribute to the education of a graudate student.