Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[Stan]

Hey Mark,

Hi Stan-

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.

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.

Now you indeed have my curiosity going. Secret research I assume for say the CIA, etc., or for lack of better terms, secret as in corporate world business secrets.

IMO, regardless of how the research ends up being 'classified', if one agrees to those terms from the beginning, I see no moral dilemma. Quite the contrary, if an Anthropologist enters into a binding contract with a company or a USG agency, He/She just jumped into the proverbial code of ethics frying pan

I liked what you said in your first post about being busy and doing something. Seems, your intellectual peers have little better to do that worry about what Mark D. is up to today.

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.

Me on the othref hand? I am totally fine with anthro's working in any capacity. Before I was an anthropologist I worked developing training systems for tanks for the army and base interdiction for the air force, among others.

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 don't know that I ever thought of employing Anthropologists to get our ordnance on target. BTW, I didn’t know you folks could do that

I was thinking more along the lines of a 'Cultural Awareness' advisor - as you pointed out, ponder over some of the unexpected. I tend to call it figuring out what the other’s about to do before he gets there. I know it’s possible as I’m accused of having the ability to do said. During my time in Sub-Sahara, I felt most of our mistakes could be directly attributed to misinterpretations.

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

Although very interesting, I’m having my own ethically driven thoughts. This one kind of rubs me the wrong way and perhaps clearly reflects my lack of understanding for your field of work. Personally, I may have smuggled in a rope for ‘Jim’ to hang himself with