Transcript Ethical Issues in Anthropology

What are we going to do today?
Ethical Issues in Anthropological Research
A few examples of historical blunders in ethical issues
AAA Statement of Ethics
Our dillemmas
Ethical Issues in
Anthropology
What are the main issues?
How do we deal with these
issues?
Our personal ethical values
 What are they?
 Where do they come from?
 How do they influence our lives?
Why Ethical Issues in
Anthropology?
 Research with human beings
 Taking away materials (archeological sites)
 Context of inequality [researcher and
researched]
 Use of knowledge—public opinion/ public
policies/ intervention strategies—impact on
the lives of people we study
 Demands from the ‘subjects’
Anthropologists: web of their
relationships
 Subjects
 Academic institution (university,
research institutions)
 Professional community
 Sponsoring institutions/organizations
 Broader public
Ethical Scandals in
Anthropology
 The Hottentot Venus 1810-1815
 Ota Benga 1904
 Yanomami 1968/2001
Saartjie Baartman
“Hottentot Venus”
Ota Benga
 Bronx Zoo 1906
 "Exhibited each
afternoon during
September."
Yanomami
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Napolean Chagnon
James Neel
1968 measles epidemic
Video portrayal
Darkness in El Dorado:
How Scientists and
Journalists Devastated
the Amazon by John
Tierney, 2000
Scandal snowballs
 2001 AAA task force
begins inquiry,
findings approved
 2002 AAA votes to
rescind approval of
the El Dorado Task
Force findings
AAA Statements on Ethics
 Adopted by the council of the AAA-May 1971
Preamble
“ They are involved with their discipline, their
colleagues, their students, their sponsors,
their subjects, their own and host
governments, the particular individuals and
groups with whom they do their field work in
the nations within which they work, and the
study of processes and issues affecting
general human welfare.”
AAA statements contd…...
“It is prime responsibility of
anthropologists to anticipate these and
to plan to resolve them in such a way as
to do damage neither to those whom
they study nor, insofar as possible, to
their scholarly community. Where these
conditions cannot be met, the
anthropologist would be well-advised
not to pursue the particular piece of
research.” (Italics added)
Responsibility to those studied
 Rights, interests, and sensitivities of those
studied must be safeguarded
 Communication of the aims
 Right to annonymity (unintentional
compromise)
 No exploitation--fair return/compensation
 Reflection upon foreseeable repurcussions
 No clandestine reporting/research (no secret
reports to sponsors)
 Accept the cultural and social plurality
Responsibilities to the Public
 Full public disclosue of the findings
 Integretiy in presenting their findings-opinions and the bases of them
 Contribute to an “adequate definition of
reality” upon which public opinion and
public policy may be based
 Honesty--and cognizant of limitations
Responsibility to the Discipline
 No secret research or any research which
cannot be freely derived and publicly
reported--avoid even the appearance of doing
clandestine research
 Not jeopardize future research-- “commitment
to honesty, open inquiry, clear communication
of sponsorship and research aims, and
concern for the welfare and privacy of
informants
Responsibility to Discipline
contd...
 No plagiarism
 Non-discrimination in hiring, retention
and advancement
Responsibility to Students
 Non-discrimination in selection
 Alert students on ethical issues and
problems
 Responsive to students’ interests,
opinions and desires in their academic
work and relationships
 Realistic counselling in career
opportunitie
Responsibility to students
contd...
 Supervse, encourage and support
 Communicate well on expectation from their
course of study,
 Fair and transparent evaluation
 Acknowledgements of students assistancship
 Due credit--co-authorship if used for
publication
Responsibility to the Sponsors
 Honest about their aims based on full
knowledge about the sponsors’ aims,
history
 Clear about unconditionality so that
academic work could not be
compromised
 Accepting only through full disclosure of
information from the sponsors
Responsibility to Governments
Host Government and Own Government
 Honesty in communication
 Demanding assurance of noninterference
 No secret reporting, debriefings or
research to be accepted
Chiapas: Who owns the
medicine in the jungle?
Satellite map of Mexico
Map of Chiapas
Bioprospecting:
 the search for new chemicals in living things
that will have some medical or commercial
use.
-- the collecting and testing of biological
samples (plants, animals, micro-organisms)
-- and the collecting of indigenous
knowledge to help find and exploit genetic or
biochemical resources
Or Biopiracy?
 Appropriation of the
knowledge and genetic
resources of farming
and indigenous
communities by
individuals or
institutions who seek
exclusive monopoly
control (patents or
intellectual property)
over these resources
and knowledge.
Players in the Chiapas
Bioprospecting/piracy issue:
 Consejo (original group of 11 Mayan
organizations, 13 other groups later joined in
support)
 International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups
(ICBG) -- U.S. Government’s National
Institute of Health (NIH)
 University of Georgia Anthropologists
 RAFI (now ETC)
Issues
 Ownership/control of knowledge
 Prior Informed Consent (PIC)
 Moral/religious objections to patenting
life and GMO
 Insufficient governmental regulatory
mechanisms
Dilemma:
Is ethically sound
and nonexploitative
bioprospecting
possible?
Under what
circumstances?
Conclusion
 Anthropology has a long history of
ethical scandals;
 This history has forced anthropology to
be more self-critical than other
academic disciplines