On Ethics and Anthropology

Abstract

I address myself to the question of a need for an ethical code, even a decision-making ethics committee, for professional ethnologists and social anthropologists. The focus here is on only one of the relationships ethnologists have in their professional lives: their relationship with the people they study. The first concern is with a distinction between normative ethics and metaethics. The assertion that a normative ethic for ethnologists should or can be based on scientific method or principles (metaethic) is analyzed and rejected. I maintain that such a code can only be based on our understanding of human behavior in many situations and can only be evaluated by observing the conduct of the ethnologists who adhere to it (metaethic). The second concern is with the contexts in which people live. I suggest that a normative ethic for anthropologists should be assessed in light of the present social environments in which we work as well as our expectations for future environments. The third and major concern is with issues of the right to private personality, the need for consent and confidentiality, the conditions under which confidentiality may not be desired, the dangers of truth, validity of research reports as an ethical consideration, and the effects of the researcher on the host community. The fourth and final concern is with the establishment and the enforcement of an ethical code in such a way as to prevent the conducting of clandestine research under cover of the title "anthropologist." The question of how an ethics committee might be selected is not taken up here, but is opened for discussion.

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