The implication of the Ethiopian Christianity in the fight against HIV/AIDS: a socio-anthropology of "cure"

TL;DRAbstract

At the end of the 1980's, while the first HIV/AIDS cases appeared, together with the Ethiopian Government the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church (EOTC) committed officially itself to the fight against HIV/AIDS. In the 1990s, followers of the Ethiopian Church on their side started to dedicate themselves to holy water ritual hoping to be cured miraculously of HIV/AIDS. In 2004, the EOTC started to receive American subventions in order to promote abstinence and faithfulness among its followers. Two years later, antiretroviral treatments began to be largely and freely distributed entering in conflict with the spiritual values of the holy water cure, which excludes any other kind of therapy. This study, combining health and religion socio-anthropology approaches focuses on the way the Ethiopian Christianity in its two components - both institutional (EOTC) and ritual (Ethiopian Church) - involved itself in the fight against the epidemic. Furthermore, it addresses the way americans' grants a

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