Abstract
Humans and animals have special relationships that have evolved over the years. Many have studied relationships between people and different animals, and the effects that these relationships have. As a result, many theories and approaches have been used as aid to study these relationships and help understand them; one such approach is the entanglement approach. Entanglement is understood as the intermingling and connectedness of species. It makes one aware of how interconnected the lives of living and non-living organisms are. This dissertation highlights the entangling relationships between humans and mosquitoes, whilst at the same time raising awareness around the lack of knowledge around mosquito-borne diseases. The study was conducted at the University of Johannesburg with first year Development Studies students on the Auckland Park campus. This study unfolded in two phases: the first was through means of an online survey. The students completed said survey during their tutorial. The next phase was through a series of focus group discussions to help illuminate the findings of the survey. Findings from the study indicate that students believe that infrastructure, or at least poor infrastructure, contributes to mosquito prevalence. And, secondly, students’ knowledge about mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases is rather limited, with knowledge of especially mosquito-borne diseases being influenced by the prevalence of such illnesses in the country of origin of the students. Finally, gender and culture were identified as an important bodily element that contributes to an overall understanding of the entanglements of humans and mosquitoes.
M.A. (Anthropology)