Name: Samuelsen, Helle Home Country: Denmark Research Country: Burkina Faso Project period: 1997-2000 Type: Ph.D. thesis Title The Topology of Illness Transmission. Localizing processes among Bissa in Burkina Faso Available at the Institute of Anthropology, Ph.D. Rækken: Ph.D.-række nr. 15, Institute of Anthropology 1999 Abstract Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork among Bissa in the south-eastern part of Burkina Faso, Helle Samuelsen explores local understandings of illness transmission. Inspired by theories of practice, embodiment and social space, the thesis is dealing with four different kinds of spaces: body space, village space, bush space and state space. With her own ethnographic data and comparative material, Helle Samuelsen shows how control of thresholds or boundaries between these different domains of apace seems to be important in local practices related to health and illness. The relationship between these spaces, the topology, is constantly challenged, as villagers have to transgress boundaries between these spaces in order to perform everyday chores. But it is when the transgression of boundaries or thresholds involves improper sharing of space that illness transmission occurs. Furthermore, Helle Samuelsen argues that local health care practices inscribe practical knowledge into people's bodies and local health care specialists become agents in processes of localization. However, in the changing contemporary medical field, these processes of localization are challenged by other medical discourses. Involved research institution(s) Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen Institute for Health Research and Development, Copenhagen   Supervisor Professor Susan Reynolds Whyte, Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen Correspondence Helle_Samuelsen