Do mundo para a tribo: a Aids sob o olhar de mulheres da etnia potiguara

Abstract

Introduction: The spread of Aids, for indian tribes, includes women between priorities of facing the epidemic, makin this discussion relevant for the construction of new considerations in the field of indigenous health. Objective: To analyze how Aids is configured according to the glance of Potiguara women. Methodological Approach: Exploratory, descriptive and quanti-qualitative field study, supported on theoretical views around the concepts of culture, ethnicity and woman. 164 women from the villages of Monte-Mór, Jaraguá and Silva de Belém, located in the municipality of Rio Tinto – Paraíba, participated in the survey. The instrument used for data collect was the semi structured enterview. The corpus generated was processed by the text analysis software IRAMUTEQ, through thematic content analysis method. Results: Departing from Hierarchical Descending Classification, nine subcategories of contents related to Aids aired by the participants were found. Such subcategories were included between a cathegory of prior informative character, with elements bound to the context of risk, transmissibility and protection of the disease and other cathegory with contents concentrated in experiences and confrontations, picturing the patient’s image, managements of treatment and care, the excluding atmosphere experienced by individuals affected by HIV and the feelings that emerge in people who live with the pathology in their peers. Conclusions: Aids is configured by Potiguara women through an imbricated of social and cultural values present in their particular context. This fusion of cultural, economic, politic and geographic elements provides meaning to Aids related experiences and exercises an important influence over the group behavior on the disease. Such considerations can contribute for the renewal of practices and direction of strategic control policies for HIV/Aids focusing on indigenous woman.