Principles of Professional Responsibility
Adopted by the Council of the American Anthropological Association
May 1971 (As amended through November 1986)
Note: This statement of principles is not intended to supersede previous statements and resolutions of the Association. Its intent is to clarify professional responsibilities in the chief areas of professional concern to anthropologists.
Preamble
Anthropologists work in many parts of the world in close personal association with the peoples and situations they study. Their professional situation is, therefore, uniquely varied and complex. They are involved with their...PLEASE READ THE REST OF STATEMENT FOR TUE FEB 19th at http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/ethstmnt.htm
Photo is of Shauna LaTosky doing fieldwork on transcultural understanding in Southern Ethiopia. Click photo for more on Shauna's work.
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6 comments:
Are these principles universally and explicitly followed by anthropologists, or are they just general "guidelines" within the community? In other words, what I'm asking is, for anthropologists, are these principles followed in much the same way that physicians follow the Hippocratic oath?
Ethics code = anthropologist's Hipporatic oath. Great example, Abe.
I understand the oath but it seems so delicate in that anything could happen ie: the right for the informants to remain anonymous & the compromise of that anonymity. This makes it a really risky project to go into, possibly doing away with months of observations.
I wonder if Anthropologist have direct supervisors connected to the AAA which helps reinforce this oath. Furthermore, what are the penalties? The AAA can't possibly revoke their diplomas.
Prof.
in class you told us about Malinowski as a useful failure; the statements on ethics will regard him as being an irresponsible person who fallaciously informed people of his own journey and practices. what do people make out of his writings today? Do they still regard him as the founder of ethnography? And if they do doesn't it go against what the ethical statements stand for?
Nina
I just skimmed the surface rather simplistically about Malinowski. To answer a couple of questions:
Caroline asked "what are the penalties?" for breaching AAA's ethical standards. She added, "The AAA can't possibly revoke their diplomas." ANSWER: Schools give diplomas, so only they can revoke degrees. However, professors who are tenure-track or even working as adjuncts will lose their credibility and the more public it is the more likely they won't be hireable or get promotions.
Nina asked if Malinowski is still regarded as the founder of ethnography. ANSWER: Of course, my simplistic introduction didn't emphasize the major contribution he made. He was the first to make anthropology an observational science, to pitch his camp in a native village, and to be a participant-observer. I overgeneralized his role a bit carelessly.
Bronislaw Malinowski was born in Krakow, Poland on April 7, 1884. He died in 1942. He came from an upper-class family that was very cultured and had deep scholarly interests. His useful failures that appeared in a diary found AFTER his death and published by his wife in 1967 revealed loneliness, frustration that anthropologists now recognize as a bit of homesickness and ethnocentrism towards the Trobriand Islanders culture. Still he resided with them for a long period. Having never lived in native conditions so different from his upbringing, there was major culture shock and was merely releasing the anxiety of it in his diary. This included an entitled colonialist sensibility about their ways yet he also befriended some key cultural consultants then known as "informants" (the term was dropped; it implied insiders spying on their own culture).
One last thing about Malinowski, one or two more things. He can't possibly be held up to ethical standards that took place after he founded social ethnography and participant observation for the entire discipline. This diary did create a kind of fervent inquiry into what ethnography is for and its limitations. Issues of representation became paramount int he discipline which we now call INTERPRETIVE ETHNOGRAPHY.
Lastly, in his diary like any one else's he freely transcribed his thoughts uncensored. He never intended any one to see them which raised its own ethical considerations. Malinowski never authorized its publication. His wife allowed it without his consent. In Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term (1967) he writes of his womanizing exploits, his sexual relations with natives, his irritability "Vakuta people irritate me with their insolence and cheekiness" (p. 253), and his hatred of his own reactions. The last line of the text reads:
"Truly I lack real character” (p. 298).
This diary in a number of ways was a useful failure inspiring ethical standards for anthropologists and protections for the people we study. It is also a useful failure in that culture shock is full of mistakes but nothing beats participant observation to get at how the individual is shaped by their culture/society.
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