ich societies adapt to the changes brought about in them by AIDS. Cultural anthropologists often examine the effects of new (or newly introduced) technologies on a culture, but it is just as appropriate to examine the effect of a newly introduced virus into a society.
Ethnography is simply the observational branch of ethnology and the traditional ethnography describes a culture, including its language, the physical characteristics of its people, its material products, and its social customs. In describing a particular tribe, for example, ethnographers have traditionally gathered information about its location and geographical environment. They also investigate all aspects of its culture, including food, shelter, dress, transportation, and manufacture of the tribe; its customs regarding government, property, and division of labor; its patterns of production and exchange; its customs regarding birth, adulthood initiation rites, marriage, and death; its religious ideas relating to magic, supernatural beings, and the universe; and its artistic, mythological, and cere
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