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. 2011 Jun;101(6):972-8.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.300081. Epub 2011 Apr 14.

Beyond faith-based organizations: using comparative institutional ethnography to understand religious responses to HIV and AIDS in Brazil

Miguel A Muñoz-Laboy  1 , Laura Murray, Natalie Wittlin, Jonathan Garcia, Veriano Terto Jr, Richard G Parker
Affiliations

Beyond faith-based organizations: using comparative institutional ethnography to understand religious responses to HIV and AIDS in Brazil

Miguel A Muñoz-Laboy et al. Am J Public Health. 2011 Jun.

Abstract

Religious institutions, which contribute to understanding of and mobilization in response to illness, play a major role in structuring social, political, and cultural responses to HIV and AIDS. We used institutional ethnography to explore how religious traditions--Catholic, Evangelical, and Afro-Brazilian--in Brazil have influenced HIV prevention, treatment, and care at the local and national levels over time. We present a typology of Brazil's division of labor and uncover overlapping foci grounded in religious ideology and tradition: care of people living with HIV among Catholics and Afro-Brazilians, abstinence education among Catholics and Evangelicals, prevention within marginalized communities among Evangelicals and Afro-Brazilians, and access to treatment among all traditions. We conclude that institutional ethnography, which allows for multilevel and interlevel analysis, is a useful methodology.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Typology of AIDS religious division of labor in Brazil, 1989–2009. Note. PLWHIV = people living with HIV.
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