Interlude: Social Movements and Incommunicability-Free Zones

The interlude outlines cases in which social movements have challenged the communicable status quo—in quite different ways—and forged new possibilities. One example, which comes from an indigenous community in eastern Venezuela, shows how a small community integrated biocommunicability with communicable models associated with indigenous medicine during a cholera epidemic. Another case profiles an HIV+ choir in South Africa whose members merged contrastive communicative modalities and views on health. In the 1980s, the gay social movement challenged HIV/AIDS protocols in the United States and demanded active roles for patients in research, treatment, policymaking, and news coverage. Finally, the Black Panthers confronted how biomedical research and practice failed Black people. The Panthers fostered innovative and respectful clinical practices and health education. Tracing the different communicable models that emerged from these creative efforts, the interlude argues that patient populations and providers can forge ways to banish incommunicability.