Author Bio

Jennifer S. Hirsch, Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, is the author of A Courtship after Marriage: Sexuality and Love in Mexican Transnational Families and co-editor of two recent volumes on the comparative anthropology of love.


Holly Wardlow, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, is the author of Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society.


Daniel Jordan Smith, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University, is the author of A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria.


Harriet Phinney is a lecturer at Seattle University.


Shanti Parikh is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis.


Constance A. Nathanson, Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of Population and Family Health in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, is the author of Disease Prevention as Social Change and Dangerous Passage: The Social Control of Sexuality in Womens Adolescence.

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Main Description

For many women around the world, their greatest risk of HIV infection comes from having sex with the very person with whom they are supposed to have sex: their spouse. The Secret situates marital HIV risk within a broader exploration of marital and extramarital sexuality in five diverse settings: Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea. In these settings, the authors write, men's extramarital sex, is an officially secret but actually widespread (and widely acknowledged) social practice, rather than something men do because their bodies demand it and women can't stop them.

Drawing on research conducted as part of an innovative comparative ethnographic study, and modeling a novel approach to collaborative anthropological scholarship, the authors show men's extramarital sex to be a fundamental aspect of gendered social organization. Through theoretically sophisticated yet lucid writing and vivid ethnographic description, drawing on rich data from the marital case studies conducted by research teams in each country, they trace how extramarital opportunity structures, sexual geographies, and concerns about social risk facilitate mens participation in extramarital sex. Also documented throughout is the collision between traditional ways and the new practices of romantic companionate marriage.

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Reviews

"In prose that is mercifully clear and easy to understand, the five case studies in this fascinating collection focus on the social and economic forces that encourage husbands to have extramarital affairs, exposing their wives to the risk of contracting HIV. These authors, each of whom had experience in the locale discussed, describe the spaces conducive to extramarital sex and the social encouragements to indulge. They explore men's subjectivity rather than depicting them as victims of emotions or sexual drives. 'Modernization,' in the form of people's increasing need for cash, is one of the culprits. It requires husbands to migrate in search of jobs, exposing them to establishments catering to migrating men that offer sexual services, even as peer pressure to appear wealthy encourages even reluctant husbands to indulge. Wives, confined at home with children and needing a husband's cash to care for them, usually keep "the secret," sometimes to the extent of refusing to 'know.' The initial and final chapters describe the authors' theoretical framework and methods, providing useful information for scholars contemplating collaborative, comparative research, or interested in curbing the spread of HIV."
--Jane F. Collier, Stanford University

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"This book is a treasure trove of good theory and critical case studies of contemporary marriage and extra marital sex globally. It begins where many prior studies have stopped: Investigation of the public secret of sex in extra-marital affairs. From Mexico to Vietnam and Uganda and beyond, marriage involves the dreadful challenge of womens exposure to HIV through their husbands or long time partners. Here is a new approach to the social organization of extra-marital sex that combines love with the sexual geography of desire in unique and disturbing ways that will be of interest to all students of these issues in the social sciences."
--Gilbert Herdt, San Francisco State University

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Table of Contents

Introduction
From Cultural Traits to Global Processes: Methods for a Critical Comparative Ethnography
The Geography of Desire: Social Space, Sexual Projects, and the Organization of Extramarital Sex in Rural Mexico
Gender Inequality, Culture, and the Social Risks of Modern Marriage: Mens Infidelity and Womens Vulnerability to HIV Infection in Southeastern Nigeria
Eaten Ones Fill and All Stirred Up: Doi Moi and the Re-Configuration of Masculine Sexual Risk and Mens Extramarital Sex in Vietnam

Whip Him in the Head with a Stick!. Marriage, Male Infidelity, and Female Confrontation among the Huli
Going Public: Monogamy, Infidelity and Marriage in Southeastern Uganda
Conclusion

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