Polygamy and Ancestor Stones

Because Ancestor Stones tells the stories of several children who had the same father with many wives, I was interested in finding out more about polygamy in Africa. I ended up finding a really good article through Google Scholar about Polygamy and its relationship to HIV and AIDS in Africa. I was surprised to find that the article at the beginning says that "regions with high rates of polygamy have significantly lower rates" of HIV and AIDS. It seems that it would be higher because the man is having relations with more women, however, if the families are loyal because of their religious reasons, like we saw in Xala, then it does make sense. The article says that the areas with the the greatest number of cases of HIV and AIDS are in the urban areas and then spread to rural areas. Another interesting thing that the article mentions is the different ways that HIV and AIDS are spread in patterns. One pattern talks about the spread being from homosexual or bisexual men, while another way is through heterosexual relations.

The article also has some really interesting graphs and graphics that I couldn't post up here because they are part of a PDF file, but they are definitely worth checking out. There are maps that show the spread of AIDS and HIV in certain areas and among certain tribes, and also a chart that shows the number of women affected and the number of men affected, with the number of women being much greater than the number of men.

Because I couldn't upload anything from the PDF file, I decided to find another source that shows the impact of AIDS in Africa. I thought this one was good.

I would definitely suggest checking out this article to find out more about the topic. I know that I learned a lot in the little bit that I was able to read and feel that I could learn a lot more if I was able to read it all.