Labeling albinism

Author(s)

Giorgio Brocco

Abstract

This article is based on a qualitative study that set out to analyze the labels and terms attached to 28 people affected by albinism in villages in Kilolo district, Tanzania. Even though national and international attention to killings of people with albinism has attempted to improve general knowledge of albinism and reduce discrimination, most of the community members within the study had little knowledge of the (bio)medical explanations for albinism and tended to marginalize people with albinism. Framed within a wider moral discourse on illness, disability and socially appropriate behavior, albinism is mostly considered to be God’s will or the consequence of past misdeeds within the family, and many of the existing labels for people with albinism express such ideas.

Organisation(s)

External organisation(s)

Freie Universität Berlin (FU)

Journal

Disability and Society

Volume

30

Pages

1143-1157

No. of pages

15

ISSN

0968-7599

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2015.1075869

Publication date

09-2015

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Health(social science), General Health Professions, General Social Sciences

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/833babfe-ea29-4ed6-b186-a2ca4e76bdb8