The Self as Risk Taker: A Cultural Theory of Contagion in Relation to AIDS

Abstract

Some people are prepared to take high risks with their lives and those of others. Should this be surprising? Is it more normal to be risk-taking? or risk averse? The argument below will be that the risk taking facet and the risk-averse facet of the personality each emerges in the course of a public debate on freedom and control. It is not psychology but anthropology that shows how the community forces sharp and clear ideas about the self upon its members.