To the River Again: HIV Research with Richard Lee

Abstract

Following Richard into the field to conduct HIV research is a daunting task, and one I have grappled with for several years. Not only is Namibia changing rapidly, and along with it the face of the epidemic, but Anthropology itself has evolved since Richard’s first groundbreaking work in the Kalahari. I suggest here, however, that Richard’s corpus offers us a powerful, subtle and critically engaged model for future anthropological work in HIV: through a marriage of political activism and sensitive ethnography, our discipline can maintain the place that pioneers like Richard have earned it at the vanguard of HIV research.