Dr. Edward C. Green
Director, AIDS Prevention Research Project
Senior Research Scientist, Harvard School of Public Health and Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University
Selected presentations by Edward C. Green
Selected publications by Edward C. Green
Edward Green is an applied, medical anthropologist with 30 years of experience in developing countries in project design, implementation and evaluation, as well as in basic and operations research, social marketing, behavior change & communication (BCC), health education, and indigenous, non-Western medicine.
His sectoral experience includes AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, family planning, primary health care, maternal & child health, children affected by war, child nutrition, water and sanitation, environmental health, U.S. minority health, biodiversity and conservation, and cancer programs.
Edward Green is a specialist in integrating indigenous and "modern" health systems. He has served as team leader on numerous USAID project designs and evaluations.
Author of five books, editor of one book and author of over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters, conference papers, or commissioned technical reports.
Articles: For a list of articles by Dr. Edward Green at the website Share The World's Resources, click here.
Books by Edward C. Green
Rethinking AIDS Prevention: Learning from Successes in Developing Countries (Praeger, 2003)
This is not another book about how AIDS is out of control in Africa and Third World nations, or one complaining about the inadequacy of secured funds to fight the pandemic. The author looks objectively at countries that have succeeded in reducing HIV infection rates...along with a worrisome flip side to the progress. The largely medical solutions funded by major donors have had little impact in Africa, the continent hardest hit by AIDS. Instead, relatively simple, low-cost behavioral change programs--stressing increased monogamy and delayed sexual activity for young people--have made the greatest headway in fighting or preventing the disease's spread. Ugandans pioneered these simple, sustainable interventions and achieved significant results. As National Review journalist Rod Dreher put it, "Rather than pay for clinics, gadgets and medical procedures--especially in the important earlier years of its response to the epidemic--Uganda mobilized human resources." In a New York Times interview, Green cited evidence that "partner reduction," promoted as mutual faithfulness, is the single most effective way of reducing the spread of AIDS.
Indigenous Theories of Contagious Disease (Altamira Press, 1999) [click title to view a free online version of the book]
Far from being the province of magic, witchcraft, and sorcery, indigenous understanding of contagious disease in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world very often parallels western concepts of germ theory, according to the author. Labeling this "indigenous contagion theory (ICT)," Green synthesizes the voluminous ethnographic work on tropical diseases and remedies-as well as 20 years of his own studies and interventions on sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, and traditional healers in southern Africa-to demonstrate how indigenous peoples generally conceive of contagious diseases as having naturalistic causes. His groundbreaking work suggests how western medical practitioners can incorporate ICT to better help native peoples control contagious diseases.
Indigenous Healers and the African State: Policy Issues Concerning African Indigenous Healers in Mozambique and Southern Africa (PACT Publications, 1996) [click title to download]
AIDS And STDs in Africa: Bridging the Gap Between Traditional Healing and Modern Medicine (Westview Press, 1994)
Green, a medical anthropologist with field experience in Swaziland, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Liberia, presents a substantial amount of data and realistic thinking. He believes that modern Western medicine and traditional sub-Saharan African healing should work together rather than compete. The individual interviews and focus group discussions he reports show that traditional healers have done much of value and that many of them are sufficiently flexible and capable to benefit from education in some Western medical practices. Those must, however, be transmitted in the spirit of cooperation rather than imposition; each group of health practitioners, Western and African, can learn from the other; for example, Westerners can discover that in Africa the category of STDs covers many more illnesses than they include under the term.
Practicing Development Anthropology. (Westview Press, 1986)
Planning Psychiatric Services for Southeast Africa. Mental Health Policy Monograph Series No. 2, Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies. (Vanderbilt University, 1979)
Selected presentations by Edward C. Green
New Evidence Guiding How We Conduct AIDS Prevention Presented to WK Kellogg Foundation (Pretoria, South Africa), 9/19/07
Selected publications by Edward C. Green
Green EC. 2009. Establishing Risk Elimination and Improving Harm Reduction in AIDS Prevention. Russian Journal of AIDS, Cancer, and Public Health 13(28): 46-56.
Green EC, Hearst N. 2009. Was the Pope Wrong? [letter] The Lancet; 373(9675): 1603.
Green EC. 2009. The Pope May Be Right [Op-Ed]. Washington Post, 29 Mar 2009.
Green EC, Mah TL, Ruark A, Hearst N. 2009. A Framework of Sexual Partnerships: Risks and Implications for HIV Prevention in Africa. Studies in Family Planning; 40(1): 63-70.
Green EC. 2007. Will Money Solve Africa's Development Problems? [A Templeton Conversation, published in the 11/4/07 The New York Times.]
Green EC, Laforet A, Abbot-Jamieson S, van Willigen J, Gleach FW, Salomon F. 2006 December. Death Notice. Anthropology News; 47(9): 35-6.
Green EC, Laforet A, Abbot-Jamieson S, van Willigen J, Gleach FW, Salomon F. 2006 September. Untitled. Anthropology News; 47(9): 33-34.
Green EC & Witte K. 2006. Fear Arousal, Sexual Behavior Change and AIDS Prevention. Journal of Health Communication; 11: 245-259.
Commentaries on Green & Witte, 2006:
- O’Grady M. Just Inducing Fear of HIV/AIDS Is Not Just. Journal of Health Communication; 11: 261-262.
- Kirby D. Can Fear Arousal in Public Health Campaigns Contribute to the Decline of HIV Prevalence? Journal of Health Communication; 11: 262-266.
- Halperin DT. The Controversy Over Fear Arousal in AIDS Prevention and Lessons from Uganda. Journal of Health Communication; 11: 266-267.
Green EC, Halperin DT, Nantulya V, Hogle J. 2006. What Happened to Reduce HIV Prevalence in Uganda? AIDS and Behavior; 2006; 10(4): 347-350.
Green EC, Herling A. 2006. The ABC Approach to Preventing the Sexual Transmission of HIV: Common Questions and Answers.
Knox R. 2005. Study: Uganda AIDS Prevention Primarily Due to Condoms [radio interview with Maria Wawer and Edward C. Green]. National Public Radio, 24 February 2005.
Green EC, Stoneburner R, Hearst N. 2004. Evidence that Demands Action.
Green EC, Sinding S. 2004. CNN vs. ABC Debate. XV International AIDS Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, July 12, 2004. [transcript provided by kaisernetwork.org]
Green, EC. 2004 March. A Death in Swaziland. Anthropology News; 45(3): 32-33.
Green, EC. 2004 January. AIDS Debate in AN. Anthropology News; 45(1): 4-5.
Hearst N, Kirby D, Okware S, Mogwe S, Green EC. 2004. Taking a Closer Look at the ABCs of Prevention. XV International AIDS Conference, Special USAID Satellite Session, Bangkok, Thailand, 11 July 2004.
Halperin DT, Steiner M, Cassell M, Green EC, Hearst N, Kirby D, Gayle H, Cates W, et al. [149 signers in total]. The time has come for common ground on preventing sexual transmission of HIV. The Lancet 2004; 364: 1913-15.
Green EC. 2003. September. Commentary: New Challenges to the AIDS Prevention Paradigm. Anthropology News; 44(6): 5-6.
Green EC. 2003. Culture Clash and AIDS Prevention. The Responsive Community; 13(4): 4-9.
Green EC. 2003. Faith-Based Organizations: Contributions to HIV Prevention.
Peterson A, Green EC, Monico S. 2003. Fighting AIDS in Uganda: What Went Right. [testimony by Anne Peterson, Edward C. Green, and Sophia Monico before Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 19 May 2003; link to transcript and video available at www.kaisernetwork.org]
Green, EC. 1998 September. COMMENTARY: New Challenges to the AIDS Prevention Paradigm. Anthropology News; 44(6): 5-6.
Green EC. 2003. New Challenges to the AIDS Prevention Paradigm. Anthropology News, Sept 2003, p. 5-6.
Green EC. 2003. The New AIDS Fight: A Plan as Simple as ABC. The New York Times, 1 March 2003.
Janzen JM & Green EC. 2003. “Continuity, Change, and Challenge in Western Medicine,” in Medicine Across Cultures: History and Practice of Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Hugh Shapiro and H. Selin, Eds. Springer.
Green EC, Sliep Y, Thornton R. 2002. Traditional Healers and the Bio-medical Health System in South Africa. Final Draft Summary Report—December 2002. Medical Care Development International (MCDI) for The
Green EC. 2001. Can Qualitative Research Produce Reliable Quantitative Findings? Field Methods; 13(1): 3-19.
Green EC. 2001. Forum Theatre Empowers Palestinian Women. Under Pressure, 7 August 2001.
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. 2001. Palestinian Maternal and Child Health: a Qualitative National Study. Ramallah -Palestine.
Green EC. 2001 October. Ethnographically Evaluating Palestinian Forum Theater. Anthropology New; 42(7): 14.
Miles, A, Bloom, F & Green EC. 2001 May. New Challenges to the AIDS Prevention Paradigm. Anthropology New; 42(5): 56.
Green, EC. 2000 September. The Circumcision and AIDS Debate. Anthropology News; 41(1): 22.
Green EC & Honwana A. 1999. Indigenous Healing of War-Affected Children. IK Notes (World Bank); 10: 1-4. [Portuguese version]
Green, EC. 1999 October. Indigenous Knowledge For Development. Anthropology News; 40(7): 20.
Green EC. 1998. Alternative and Complementary Medicine at the 1998 World AIDS Conference. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 4(3): 349-351.
Green, EC. 1998 September. White Cultural Practices Unmasked. Anthropology News; 39(6): 2.
Green, EC. 1998 March. D Michael Warren: An Appreciation. Anthropology News; 39(3): 6.
Green EC. 1997. “Is there a Basis for Modern-Traditional Cooperation in African Health Care?” Invited Guest Editorial Essay, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine; 3(4): 311-314.
Green EC. 1996. “Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Health Promotion in Mozambique,” in Indigenous Knowledge and Its Uses in Southern Africa, Hans Normann and Ina Snyman, Eds. Human Sciences Research Council.
Green EC, Zokwe B, Dupree JD. 1995. The Experience of an AIDS Prevention Program Focused on South African Traditional Healers. Social Science and Medicine; 40(4): 503-515. [Copyright Elsevier, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(85)90242-4]
Green, EC. 1995 May. The Circumcision and AIDS Debate. Anthropology News; 36(5): 52.
Green EC. 1992. Sexually Transmitted Disease, Ethnomedicine and Health Policy in Africa. Social Science and Medicine; 35(2): 121-30. [Copyright Elsevier, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)E0105-2]
Green EC. 1992. The Anthropology of Sexually Transmitted Disease in Liberia. Social Science and Medicine; 35(12): 1457-68. [Copyright Elsevier, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(92)90048-U]
Cernea MM. 1992. Re-tooling in Applied Social Investigation for Development Planning: Some Methodological Issues, in Rapid Assessment Procedures- Qualitative Methodologies for Planning and Evaluation and Health Related Programmes, Nevin S. Scrimshaw and Gary R. Gleason, Eds. International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries (INFDC),
Green EC. 1988. Can Collaborative Programs Between Biomedical and African Indigenous Health Practitioners Succeed?. Social Science and Medicine; 27(11): 1125-30. [Copyright Elsevier, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(88)90341-3]
Green EC. 1986. Diarrhea and the Social Marketing of Oral Rehydration Salts in Bangladesh. Social Science and Medicine; 23(4): 357-66. [Copyright Elsevier, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(86)90078-X]
Green EC. 1985. Traditional Healers, Mothers and Childhood Diarrheal Disease in Swaziland: the Interface of Anthropology and Health Education. Social Science and Medicine; 20(3): 277-85. [Copyright Elsevier, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(85)90242-4]
Green EC, Makhubu L. 1984. Traditional Healers in Swaziland: Toward Improved Cooperation Between the Traditional and Modern Health Sectors. Social Science and Medicine; 18(12): 1071-9. [Copyright Elsevier, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(84)90167-9]
Green EC. 1982. U.S. Population Policy, Development and the Rural Poor of Africa. Journal of Modern African Studies; 20(1): 45‑67.
Green EC. 1978. Winti and Christianity: A Study in Religious Change. Ethnohistory; 25(3): 251-276.