Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[marct]

Hi Mark,

Its true, the most current revision of the AAA code of ethics (which is also under revision) is no longer as explicit about secret research. At one point it was a direct breach of ethics.

It is also interesting that a number of people still think that it is a part of the code of ethics.

The rub is the interpretation of the different parts of the code. Most anthropologists would still argue that a person should never do research that cannot be made public to everyone including those the research is about.

Yup. Add to that the situation that you may be working with groups where some of your research cannot be made public since it could cause them "harm", and you get an interesting conflict arising.

Take the "do no harm" related section. Of course, thats a basic *duh* for most people. BUT, what if you are doing research with military teams, say a bomber crew. The objective is to understand how to make them a more effective team to improve accuracy, reduce error and generally bomb the bejesus out of the enemy. For many anthropologists, you are indeed doing harm at that point. Cultural understanding to improve relations for military units is questionable, but sort of OK. Developing a better understanding of Al Queda to locate and bomb them is waaaaaay out of bounds.

Is it? Hmmm, I spent a lot of time debating what "do no harm" means with a lot of people I really respect (Jerry Barkow, Charlie Laughlin, Regna Darnell to name just a few). One of the distinctions that has to be made is between "harm" and "hurt". A second distinction that has to be made is if the primary locus of concern is based on our "subject", then does that include harm to those who are not our subjects? A third distinction is when does the primary locus of concern shift from our subjects to other groups?

I don't object to a code of ethics of course. One of the most interesting classes I had in grad school was my ethics class. The time to really ponder ethical dilemmas is before they happen, then at least you have some footing when the inevitable unexpected surprise happens.

I agree that that is exactly the time to ponder them . I do, however, have a problem with codes in general, at least in the sense that they can become substitutes for the individual developing their own codes. I think they are definitely useful in the sense that they provide a framework for discussion and general guidance, but I also find most professional codes quite lacking in that they do not lay out their "first principles" as it were.

Here is a post I wrote about my most difficult ethical problem I have encountered. http://www.ethnography.com/2007/03/w...hical-dilemma/

Interesting problem, and I may just toss it off to my students. BTW, I would have done exactly the same thing as you did.

Marc