Brummelhuis and Herdt provide an intense examination of sexual risk and its cultural configurations heretofore missing from the AIDS literature. The chapters on Western gay men speak to the pressing methodological, conceptual and theoretical needs in HIV/AIDS research while providing an understanding and documentation of gay men's lives within the emerging corpus of lesbian and gay studies. Chapters on the Philippines, Brazil, Haiti and Africa explore the cultural, political and economic contexts surrounding the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS in these cultures.