Morality and HIV/AIDS: a Comparison of Russian Orthodox Church and Secular NGO Approaches

Abstract

This paper compares the different moral approaches taken by the Russian Orthodox Church and secular NGOs to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Russia. The paper consists of two parts. The first is a brief summary of the theoretical approach of the project. In this section I outline the theory of moral breakdown that helps provide a coherent framework to the emerging, but yet under-theorised, subdiscipline of the anthropology of moralities. In doing so, I show how this theory provides legitimacy to this choice of topic for a proper study of local moralities. The second section provides a brief background on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia, and then moves on to an analysis of the moral discourses and practices of the Russian Orthodox Church and secular NGOs, and how they have influenced the way these institutions approach the HIV/AIDS epidemic.