Comparing The Baitshepi And The Russian Orthodox Community

Do church communities offer people afflicted with HIV and AIDS, which are incurable diseases, extensive moral support to assuage or eradicate the physical discomfort and social marginalization that afflicted people face? Examining communities in post-Soviet Russia and the relatively wealthy nation of Botswana reveals how religious figures give “communal psychosomatic” care to heal HIV and AIDS-related suffering. I define “communal psychosomaticism” as the tight interpersonal connections through which church leaders and community members alleviate bodily and mental pain. In the Baitshepi church of Botswana, pastor MmaMaipelo and her parishioners have treated people afflicted with HIV/AIDS as close, loved relatives. Understanding that biomedicine

Notably, the Baitshepi use funerals to help the community heal and move on from the loss of life while the Russian Orthodox community seeks to save the afflicted from near-death situations. Situating care and healing within a more pragmatic discourse, the Baitshepi church dissuades its members from seeking total cure for sick people. As Klaits finds, the bereaved depend on the rest of the community’s loving help to “give up” or “resign themselves” to death (2010: 247). While it is important that as many community members as possible attend funerals, funerals are not lavish in style and instead help the community to move on from the death together. Again, if all community members can sever emotional ties to the dead, then everyone will feel well in mind and

Klaits heard Baitshepi church members call funerals “dangerous” and “hot,” and subject to malicious witches poisoning living people’s blood, in opposition to the community’s aim to care for sick bodies through “cooling” and calming (Klaits 2010: 251). So, many Baitshepi do not wish to spend any more time than is necessary at funerals; in funerals, the community briefly commemorates the dead and then recognizes that death is too common in Botswana for emotional exhaustion. Indeed, with every other person in the country infected by HIV in the 1990s, often leading to AIDS deaths, excessive mourning would harm community morale (2017 Hannig). Therefore, the Baitshepi hold funerals that are large-scale yet austere to make sure that everyone in the community as possible; by training everyone to emotionally detach from AIDS-related deaths, the community can heal and move on from personal