The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV

Appendix III. Detailed Listing of Plans for Participant Observation, High-Priority Locations

243 SOCIAL SPACES TThings to look for specifically Vital questions to answer Patterns of socializing Gender, social networks, and prestige hierarchies How do men socialize with other men? How do women socialize with other women? To what extent do men’s social networks and activities shape extramarital relationships? How are men’s patterns of socializing related to economic factors? Staging of extramarital sex What are the social spaces in which men and women spend time together outside of the home, and how does the organization of these spaces shape nonmarital heterosexual relationships? Where does commercial sex happen? (bars, houses, out of town) Who controls these spaces? (state, police, commercial interests) Appendix III. Detailed Listing of Plans for Participant Observation, High-Priority Locations As suggested by the title, this instrument presents the high-priority areas for participant observation, representing the team’s consensus about the spaces in which we were most likely to observe phenomena relevant to answering our shared questions . The set of instruments we developed also included a list of lower-priority sites for participant observation, which is not reproduced here. Each of us used these instruments as guides in determining where to spend time and what to look for over the course of our fieldwork. What is the social geography of extramarital sex? 244 The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV What is the difference here between men’s “heterosexual” and “homosexual” relationships (using these categories as general placeholders)? Are there any regulations about condom use in different commercial sex venues? Are these regulations enforced? By whom? The lived experience of marriage and family life in public Marital communication and socializing—tone and content How do couples act together in public? Do they even ever appear in public as couples? If so, where? Are these spaces for heterosociality new? Public? Commercial? How are they shaped by social class? Gender and life-course differences in physical autonomy What are the local single-sex social spaces? In what circumstances do women go out by themselves? Where do men go by themselves? What is perceived to be safe for women? What is perceived to be safe for men? Social constructions of sexuality Sexual identities What are the local categories through which people understand sexual identity? What are people’s attitudes toward various sexual identities? What is the moral landscape of object choice (sex of partner)? Presentation of sexual self (issues of sexuality and gendered prestige/status and stigma)—the strategic creation of a sexual self for public consumption; dress, How does the public face of couples help us learn about the diversity of marital practices in terms of: Affect? Work? Power: Individual autonomy/ control over one’s spouse? Decision-making (as both an affective process and a manifestation of power differences)? How children fit into familybuilding ? How sex fits into family-building? What can we learn from the media, coming-of-age rituals, and other cultural forms about: The nature and purpose of marital sexuality? Symbolic aspects of extramarital sex? Local organization of sexual identities? Appendix III 245 comportment, where they go, and who they go with (can women say hello to other people on the street? do they need to be accompanied?) Private sexual selves—how do issues of self play out in the formation of sexual relationships? Beliefs/attitudes toward extramarital relations Cultural ideals and extramarital sex How do men and women react to stories about different kinds of extramarital relationships? Are some kinds seen differently than others (e.g., another man’s wife versus a commercial sex worker or unmarried woman, either within or outside of the community)? Are there different reasons for different kinds of relationships? Are there different risks for different kinds of relationships? Patterns of sexual joking and gossip, especially about extramarital sex Are there gender differences in how people joke and talk about extramarital sex? Are there generational differences in styles, content, audiences? What about relevant policies (i.e., public policy/public health/legal regulation of extramarital and nonmarital sex)? Marketplaces as social and sexual spaces A space where we might be able to observe gendered interactions between men and women (like a U.S. shopping mall) How do people flirt in the market? Do married people shop together? What is going on in marketplaces in terms of self-presentation and sexual advertisements? What is the public discourse about infidelity? What is the gendered division of interaction and presentation in places of commerce...