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Re-Creating dominant ideologies: The "Virgin
Cure" in the Postmodern Moment
Katharine
Dargis
Department of
Anthropology
American
University
In the postmodern era, the Internet is ostensibly free from limiting
identity markers and contains the potential to be an ideal space for
democratic debate. In this paper, I textually anaylize the transcript of a
discussion forum from a website devoted to uncovering conspiracies and
that encourages the questioning of authority.
The discussion topic is about six South African men accused of
practicing the ‘virgin cure,’ a practice which steams from the belief
that if one has sexual intercourse with a virgin, they can be cured of
HIV/AIDS. This participants, in the course of discussion, transform these
six men into all black South Africans and ultimately, into an Other.
In this paper, this process is connected to a legacy of colonial,
postcolonial, and development ideologies, in which discourse has been used
to maintain systems of power. Examining grammatical markers of identity
formation, this papertraces the re-creation of dominant ideologies. This
paper critically questions the ability of the discussants to subvert
dominant ideologies, focusing on negotiated use of media sources and
ability to dissent from established metanarratives. A connection is drawn
to international public health policy to criticize the impact dominant
ideologies have on those involved. |