ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the history and politics of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Uganda. It discusses the primacy that has been accorded to AIDS in Uganda and examines to trace social science involvement in AIDS research through three phases from 1982 to 1990. They are: Anthropologists as Handmaidens: The Biomedical Paradigm, Anthropologists as Social Workers: The Community Paradigm, Anthropologists as Social Analysts: The Critical Paradigm. The chapter explores the social construction of both history and knowledge centering on the progressive recognition of the magnitude of AIDS as a medical condition of major human and social proportions. It traces the shifting focus of social research on AIDS in Uganda from emphasizing curing and caring to more critical analytic frames. Most of the anthropologists employed during the first phase were funded as members of biomedically oriented research teams by international and United States organizations such as world health organization, AID, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
