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"Heavy Metal Music and the Communal Experience critically examines the issue of community formation in metal music. Through theoretical reflections on communal formation and empirical research in the field, the authors focus on how metal communities are conceptualized, created, shaped, maintained, interact with their context, and address internal tensions. Scholars interested in extreme music and community formation will become familiar with this particular collective experience, now prevalent throughout the world"-- $c Back cover

Der Virus HIV und die erworbene Immunschwäche-Krankheit AIDS führen häufig zur Stigmatisierung der Betroffenen. Sozialwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen dieser Stigmatisierungsprozesse zielen zumeist auf Meinungen, sehr viel weniger jedoch auf Gefühle. In unserer Studie haben wir uns deshalb mit der Rolle von Emotionen im Prozess der Stigmatisierung von Menschen, die mit HIV/AIDS leben, durch Professionelle im Gesundheitsbereich beschäftigt. Hierzu wurden im Rahmen eines explorativen und qualitativen Designs halbstrukturierte Tiefeninterviews durchgeführt. Das Sample setzte sich zusammen aus 80 Professionellen und Studierenden aus Psychologie, Sozialarbeit, Medizin und Pflegewissenschaft. In den Ergebnissen unserer Untersuchung wurden mit HIV/AIDS assoziierte Gefühle wie Mitleid, Ekel und Angst sichtbar, wobei die Forschungsteilnehmer(innen) das Bedürfnis artikulierten, diese Gefühle im Umgang mit Betroffenen kontrollieren zu wollen. Die Ergebnisse verwiesen auch auf die Erfordernis, Faktoren weiter zu untersuchen, die den Umgang mit Emotionen vermitteln – so z.B. die jeweiligen sozialen Kontexte, in denen sie ausgelöst werden, oder die Frage, wem gegenüber solche Gefühle offenbart werden –, und um so Prozesse der HIV/AIDS-bezogenen Stigmatisierung besser verstehen zu können.

HIV/AIDS bedeutet eine (potenzielle) Stigmatisierung durch die Assoziation mit Krankheit, Ansteckung und Tod. Eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit verdient hierbei die Rolle, die dem Körper in dem Prozess der Stigmatisierung zukommt. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Stigmatisierung durch visuelle Körperbilder: Durch die Analyse von Fotos, die zur Illustration von Artikeln über HIV/AIDS in der größten Zeitschrift Puerto Ricos veröffentlicht wurden, versuchen wir zu zeigen, auf welche Weise stigmatisierte Körper portraitiert werden. Wir prüfen, ob diese Fotos bzw. ihre Botschaft der tatsächlichen HIV/AIDS-Epidemiologie in Puerto Rico entsprechen/zuwiderlaufen und welche Konsequenzen aus diesen Botschaften für die Stigmatisierung von Menschen mit HIV/AIDS erwachsen (können). Die hier veröffentlichte Studie ist ein (vorläufiger und früher) Teil eines größeren Forschungsvorhabens, das sich mittels qualitativer Methodik mit der Stigmatisierung von Menschen mit HIV/AIDS durch unterschiedliche Medien (Fernsehen, Radio, Printmedien, Internet) befasst.

AIDS related stigma continues to impact the lives of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) negatively. Although the consequences of stigmatization have been widely documented, certain areas of study need to be further addressed in order to better understand their implications for PLWHA; such is the case of the perceptions of the bodys role in AIDS stigma. A qualitative study was implemented including 30 in-depth interviews of PLWHA in Puerto Rico in order to explore their perceptions of the bodys role in the process of stigmatization. Results include: participants perceptions on how their bodies evidence their serostatus, description of past body marks, personal experiences with body marks, meanings attributed to their bodies with HIV/AIDS, and personal criteria used to describe the perfect body. These issues are described in the context of the social stigma faced by PLWHA in Puerto Rico and individual perceptions of bodys role in the process of self-stigmatization. Recommendations for intervention and research are described.

Health research on tourism has expanded over the past two decades, focusing on understanding how the social, economic, and political configuration of tourism zones might contribute to health vulnerabilities among the diverse populations that interact in these areas. While there are few studies of HIV and drug use interactions in the region, research has indicated that these two outcomes are often interwoven in tourism zones, potentially producing 'syndemics' of HIV infection and problematic drug use. One framework that has been used in public health research on tourism is one that we refer to as touristic escapism or situational disinhibition that may be heightened for some tourists while on vacation, potentially leading to the abandonment of normative constraints on behaviour and contributing to health risks such as unprotected sex or binge drinking. In this article, we draw upon tourism theory and ethnographic research with male tourism workers employed in two popular tourist areas of the Dominican Republic to explore whether touristic escapism offers insights in understanding health vulnerabilities within tourism spaces.

BACKGROUND: Like other epidemics, the current heroin epidemic in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic is a largely invisible and devastating social problem linked to numerous structural and social determinants of health. METHODS: In this article, we connect a community-based participatory research methodology – "PhotoVoice" – with the theoretical orientation of critical medical anthropology to identify local interpretations of complex social and structural factors that are most salient to the well-being of local Dominican populations affected by drug addiction. RESULTS: Specifically, we describe Proyecto Lentes (Lens Project), a PhotoVoice initiative launched in 2014, which brought together active drug users to visually unveil and critically analyze the micro- and macro-factors shaping the marginalized and stigmatized drug addiction epidemic in Santo Domingo. CONCLUSIONS: While the synthesis of PhotoVoice and critical medical anthropology provides a powerful political analysis tool, this fusion is particularly apt in its ability to capture the "invisible voices" of marginalized communities, potentially contributing to future policy reform and social empowerment.

In this article, we use syndemic theory to examine socio-structural factors that result in heightened vulnerability to HIV infection and drug addiction among Dominican deportees who survive post-deportation through informal tourism labor. Through an ongoing NIDA-funded ethnographic study of the syndemic of HIV and problematic drug use among men involved in tourism labor in the Dominican Republic, we argue that the legal and political-economic context of the global deportation regime contributes to structural vulnerabilities among deportees in the Dominican Republic, most of whom are men with histories of incarceration in the United States and/or Puerto Rico. While Dominican laws and institutional practices work conjointly with foreign policies to reconfigure non-criminal deportees as hardened criminals unworthy of full citizenship rights, the informal tourism economy provides one of the few absorption points for male deportee labor, linking the deportation regime directly to the Caribbean tourism industry.

Social stigma continues to be a barrier for health promotion in our society. One of the most stigmatized health conditions in our time continues to be addiction to illicit drug use. Although it has been widely recognized as a health concern, criminalizing approaches continue to be common in Puerto Rico. Health professionals need to engage in challenging the stigma of illicit drug use in order to foster policies and government efforts with health-oriented approaches. Still, personal stigmatizing attitudes among them continue to be a barrier for the implementation of this agenda. Therefore, the main objectives of this study were to document stigma towards illicit drug use among a sample of health professionals in training, and explore differences in such attitudes among participants from different areas of training. In order to achieve this objective we carried out a sequential mixed method approach with a sample of 501 health professionals in training or practice from the disciplines of medicine, nursing, psychology and social work. Results evidence the continued existence of stigmatizing attitudes among this population. We discuss some of the implications for public health and potential strategies for action.

This article aims to describe the manifestation of HIV stigma in the family context and how this could impact the life of people living with HIV (PLWH). The data derive from a larger phenomenological study addressing manifestations of stigma in the lives of PLWH when interacting with the health sector. Nine focus groups were carried out in 2011 with PLWH (N=67). Eight themes emerged from the qualitative analysis. For the purpose of this article, we focus on the categories related to family dynamics: the negotiation of disclosure and non-disclosure, fear of the HIV virus and family dynamics, and life as a couple. Socio demographic information showed that 53% were between 44 to 54 years old, 80% were single, 51% were male, 42% did not complete a high school diploma, 82% were unemployed. Also, 82% described themselves as religious persons and 41% had lived with HIV for 10 years or less. Qualitative results show stigma is still present in the family context. PLWH experience fear of disclosure, discrimination, avoid initiating families or couple relationships, experience physical and verbal abuse from relatives, and even separation from other family members. After more than 30 years of the ongoing HIV epidemic, stigma is still manifested by family members with detrimental social and medical implications for PLWH. Research and educational efforts should continue addressing manifestations of stigma among family members of PLWH.

This paper draws on ethnographic, qualitative and survey data with transwomen in Puerto Rico to examine the social and political-economic context of lay injection with hormone and silicone – common practices within this community. We describe specific practices of hormone and silicone injection, the actors that govern them, the market for the sale and distribution of syringes and the networks of lay specialists who provide services to a population that is neglected by and largely excluded from biomedical settings. Our data derive from ethnographic observations, sociodemographic questionnaires, surveys and semi-structured interviews conducted with a diverse group of transwomen in metropolitan San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our analysis focuses on four overlapping social domains or processes that shape the practices of lay silicone and hormone injection among transwomen: (1) the circulation of gender transitioning technologies within local and global markets; (2) the tension between the social exclusion of transwomen and their resilient sub-cultural responses; (3) the cultural meanings that shape transwomen's attitudes about injection; and (4) the perceived consequences of injection. We conclude with a discussion of the kinds of intervention and policy changes that would respond to the factors that most endanger transwomen's health.