Ethical issues in cultural anthropology

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Ethical issues in cultural anthropology

• Those who confront violence with resistance--
• whether it be cultural or politicaldo not escape
  
• unscathed from the terror and oppression they
  rise
• up against. The challenge of ethnography then, is
  to
• check the impulse to sanitize, and instead to
  clarify
• the chains of causality that link structural,
  political,
• and symbolic violence that buttresses unequal
  power
• relations and distorts efforts at resistance
• (Bourgois 2004 433).

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Ethical issues and anthropology

• Notions of right and wrong
• Concerns about our intentions (academic and
  otherwise) towards others, institutions,
  governments, etc.
• Our responsibilities towards social groups
  (collectivities) and individuals

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Anthropological (ethical) controversies

• The project Camelot
• The Thailand controversy

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The project Camelot (1960s and 70s)

• Collection of large amount of primary and
  secondary data on Latin America by the USA
  government
• Ethnographic data was of great interest
• Emergence within the conjuncture of the global
  politics

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The Thailand Controversy (1960s)

• Anthropological data used by the USA government
  to fight insurgents
• Anthropologists established a research task to
  deal with ethical issues
• Forced anthropologists to create ethical
  guidelines (AAA Guidelines in the 90s)

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Issues concerning anthropologists 40 years ago

• Responsibility of anthropologists towards the
  people they study
• The complicit role that anthropology played in
  the domination and exploitation of peoples

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Today

• Accountability
• Accountable Answerable, being required to answer
  for one's actions. Sometimes the term
  "accountable" is used with a moral connotation
  ("normatively" ) meaning morally required to
  answer for one's actions without specifying to
  whom one is accountable. More often "accountable"
  is used descriptively to describe the
  sociological fact that a person or organization
  in question is required to answer to a particular
  party by some rules or organizational structure
  (Oxford dictionary).

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Other ethical issues facing anthropologists

• Issues of globalization and human rights (an
  arena for intensive contact with politically
  imposed human tragedy) ---How do we deal with
  the implications of globalization in ethnographic
  research?
• Issues of cultural property--- Who has the right
  to own cultural property objects, stories,
  ethnographic materials (writings,photos, etc.).
• Issues of the anthropology of the
  future--Challenges of the internet.

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What do we learn from these two controversies?

• concern for the dignity and welfare of people
  and groups with whom we live, work and study.
• suspicious of potentially hidden government
  research agendas with negative implications for
  people Bourgois
• open about research goals to informants and
  institutions to insure continuation of research
• dedication to an intellectually and
  institutionally viable profession
• sharing information with the public

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• Do you agree with Bourgois that this guideline
  is contradictory to the actual research
  contingencies?

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• Do you think that this code of ethics could be
  a continuation of a Western centered discourse
  prevalent in anthropology throughout its history
  or not?

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• What are the contradictions between these ethical
  guidelines and our moral imperatives then?

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• Why should we take into consideration unequal
  power relations?

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• Can we reconcile the contradictions between
  social responsibility and the commitment of
  anthropology to institutional accountability?

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• What does Bourgois mean when he asserts that our
  studies among the poor and powerless could
  contribute to their empowerment?

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Summary of guidelines

• Maintain your primary responsibility to the
  persons you are studying
• Obtaining clear consent from informants for
  the collection of information (some of which is
  going to be sensitive)
• Become aware that your presence will increase
  the dependency of he community on outside forces
• Keep in mind your responsibility to
  contribute in some positive way to the community
  you are studying
• Keep promises to insure future access to the
  field

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