CONDOMS AND COSMOLOGY: Fractal person and sexual risk in Rwanda

Anthro 10 WFY-1 [Cuadra, Lomibao]

1. AIDS
Pathology arises where the flow of liquids becomes
blocked. Liquids: concern bodily secretions blood, saliva,
semen and maternal milk.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

A disease caused by a virus called HIV (Human

Immunodeficiency Virus)

The illness alters the immune system, making people much

more vulnerable to infections and diseases. This
susceptibility worsens as the disease progresses.

HIV is found in the body fluids of an infected person

(semen and vaginal fluids, blood and breast milk).

It can be transmitted in many ways, such as vaginal, oral

sex, anal sex, blood transfusion, and contaminated
hypodermic needles.

Researches revealed that AIDS began with a spillover from

a chimp to a human in or near a small southeastern wedge
of Cameroon, around 1908.

2. Condoms
A barrier device that may be used during sexual intercourse
to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading
sexually transmitted disease (STD).
They are often made from latex, but some are made from
polyisoprene, polyurethane and even lamb intestine.
These devices were primarily used for birth control rather
disease prevention.
3. Rwanda
Problem
Condoms are readily available in the urban centers of
Rwanda, where the AIDS epidemic has raged most
intensely. However, researchers report that women
reluctant to have their partners use them where 59% of the
women who knew condoms, did not like them
Fractal person and Concept of flow/blockage
Fractal being: emphasizes continuities between persons
and appreciates inter-personal flows as affirming and life
giving.
As a product of society, human being is incomplete
without the others.
Homology: the existence of shared ancestry and
historical connections between human beliefs,
practices or species separated by time
Concept of flow and blockage:

Notions about flow of liquid gifts

Precolonial: Ritually controlling the flow of fluids was
responsibility of the Rwandan divine king (mwami) as
an embodiment of Rwandan supreme/creator (imaana)
King (conduit or symbol of fertility)his mode of
ingestion and mode of excretion tended to follow the
principle of fluidity or flow

Modern: Rwandans prefer the activity of drinking; exchanging

of beverages between visitors and guests; bringing cows milk,
beer, and porridge to a new mother to initiate lactation for milk
abundance (Guhemba).

Blockage of the flow of liquid or giftmay bring drought

or ruin the fertility of land.
Blocked Beings: adolescent girls with
underdeveloped breasts and suffering from
amenorrhea were killed.
Sexual practices in Rwanda
Sexuality and human fertility: Encompassed by the ideas of
gift.
Intanga, gift to self designates either the male or
female potentiality to produce new life.
Rwandan sexual practices emphasize the reciprocal flow of
secretions between the two partners.
Kunyaza: Man externally stimulates the womans
clitoris by tapping his penis against it make the
woman produce copious vaginal secretions, before he
ejaculates
Flow of reciprocal secretions that produces a
common product, child.

Objection against use of condoms

Placing a condom between the two partners means bringing
blockage between the reciprocal flow of their secretions.

Turning the male semen back upon itself

The woman risking to become a blocked being when
her partner wears a condom.

Reasons for least preference of condom use by Rwandan

women:
1. feared that the condom would remain lodged in the
vagina after intercourse.

CONDOMS AND COSMOLOGY: Fractal person and sexual risk in Rwanda

Anthro 10 WFY-1 [Cuadra, Lomibao]
2. possibility of diminished pleasure (no movement of
fluids in kunyaza).
Conclusion
3. disease might result from their usage or that condoms
In cosmology, it does not make sense to consider the
are unsafe (disease is associated with blocking)
individual as a singularity or a countable unit, but rather a
4. mistrust of ones partner (interposes an obstacle
synergistic fractal or continuum, where if a blockage of
between oneself and ones partner)
reciprocity occurs, it could be transmitted to the entire
5. fear of diminished fertility (blockage is associated with
collective and cause destruction.
infertility)