Dr Fraser G McNeill

Dr. Fraser G. McNeill has been conducting ethnographic research in the Venda region (Limpopo Province) of South Africa for over 10 years. He received his PhD. from the LSE in 2007, and currently holds a Research Fellowship in the Department of Anthropology. His research is concerned primarily with ethnographic accounts of HIV/AIDS, the political economy of traditional leadership and entrepreneurial activities in South Africa. As a recording musician, he has worked with several South African groups, and his thesis was also concerned with the relationship between performance, knowledge and experience in the context of the current crisis of social and sexual reproduction in southern Africa.

He is currently involved in a two year research project entitled “Investing, engaging in enterprise, gambling and getting into debt: popular economies and citizen expectations in South Africa.” As part of this project, he will return to South Africa in 2009 to research the connections between the HIV/AIDS epidemic, entrepreneurial activities and the production of popular culture.

Selected Publications

Forthcoming in 2009, McNeill, F.G. " 'Condom is the Boss!': AIDS, Politics and Music in Venda, South Africa". To be published by Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, London.

Forthcoming, McNeill, F.G. “’Condoms Cause AIDS’: Poison, Prevention and Denial in South Africa.” Currently under review with the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

2008, McNeill, F.G. “ ‘We Sing about what we cannot talk about’: Music as Anthropological Evidence in Venda, South Africa” in How Do We Know? Evidence, Ethnography and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge Chau, High and Lann (eds.) Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp36-58.

2008, McNeill, F.G. and James, D.A.  “Singing songs of AIDS in Venda, South Africa: performance, pollution and ethnomusicology in a neo-liberal setting.” South African Music Studies Volume 28. pp1-30.

^