anthropology

In a field of such complex involvements, misunderstandings, conflicts, and the necessity to make choices among conflicting values are bound to arise and to generate ethical dilemmas.

It is a prime responsibility of anthropologists to anticipate these ethical issues and to plan to resolve them in such a way as to do no damage either to those whom they study or, insofar as possible, to their scholarly community.”

American Anthropological Association Statement on Ethics

Read the following descriptions of different scenarios, which pose ethical problems for anthropologists. There is not necessarily one “correct” answer but you MUST make a personal decision, and describe how you support your choice.

Checklist to help you earn maximum points: Make sure to check all of them before handing out the copy.

· All answers are typed (-5pts total).

· Each answer has at least 4 sentences (- 5 pts per answers not having 4 sentences).

· Sentences are grammatically correct (-5 pts total if more than 1 grammatical error per answer).

· There are no typos , because you proofread this copy (-5 pts total if more than 5 typos in total).

· The copy of this exercise is neat, well printed (no print smudge), and is not rumpled (-5 pts total if any).

· You did not copy another student’s answer. You will receive no points for the copied answer and a further -10pts per answer copied.

1. Protecting Research Subjects:

You are preparing your dissertation defense in a medical anthropology program.  You have important theoretical contributions to make in the area of family relationships and child treatment, particularly on child abuse and neglect.  You plan to publish in your dissertation many of the black-and-white photos you took of the children and families you studied.  There are however a couple of problems: 

You did not include photographic methods as part of your application to the Internal Review Board and you have not obtained signed permission from any of the individuals pictured in the photographs to publish these identifying images.

Some of the photographs portray evidence of physical violence with children that would be considered child abuse by professionals outside the study community.

1.1 What steps could you take to allow the dissemination of your work and also protect your research subjects? Write at least 3 suggestions (5pts).

1.2 Why is it important to obtain signed informed consent from your research subjects? (5pts)

2. To Medicate or Not to Medicate:

You received a large National Institute of Health grant for research in the Western Tropics. As part of your personal gear, you took along a considerable amount of medication, which your physician had prescribed for your personal use, since you are working in a malaria region. Later, after settling into a village, you become aware that many of the local people are quite ill with malaria.

2.1 Since you have such a large supply of medication, much more than needed for personal use, should you distribute the surplus to your hosts? What reason might you give for not sharing? (5pts).

2.2 How might the distribution of anti-malarial, change the relationship between you and your subjects? In addition, how might it influence your data? (5pts).

3. Witness to Murder:

You are conducting fieldwork in a Southeast Asian community for 18 months. One night you are awaken by loud, argumentative discussions in the village plaza. You see one man in a group of five, angrily raise his machete and deliver a deadly blow to another in the group. Moments later, people from the other homes begin moving into the plaza, in response to the crying that comes from the man who had wielded the machete.

The next evening, the dead man is buried. The man who dealt the deadly blow was allowed to participate in the funeral and to make a death payment to the family of the deceased. Two days later, three regional policemen come to the village as part of a government crackdown on blood-feud killings. You have written a detailed description of the events in your notebook and recorded the burial with your video camera.

3.1 You are questioned by the police: should you, like the other villagers, plead ignorance concerning the killing? Should you destroy the pages in your notebook where the events were recorded and delete you recording? (5pts).

3.2 The man with the machete was allowed to make a death payment and never went to jail. How do you interpret the reason and utility behind this practice, and could it be incorporated in our American culture? (5 pts).

4. Eating Bushmeat

You are working in the Central Africa Republic studying the bushmeat trade. Part of your research has revealed that the primate population in a nearby-protected forest is seriously declining, likely due to poaching. However, in order to collect accurate data on the bushmeat trade and to understand the need for bushmeat in communities, you have to gain the trust of local hunters. You are invited to join some villagers when they go hunting, to accompany them to the marketplace afterwards to sell their meat and finally to join a household for dinner where bushmeat will be on the menu.

4.1 Should you decline the offer to join the hunt and subsequent sale, as these are illegal activities?

Should you join the household for dinner, and if served primate meat, should you eat it? (5 pts).

4.2 Years later, a journalist from your local TV station is doing an interview to highlight research at the university, and asks you: “were the hunters sent to jail?” What is your response and why? (5 pts).

5. Working with the Tiwi.

You are working on Melville Island in Northern Australia, studying Aboriginal creation myth and stories. After 6 months, you are given the kinship role of son to an old Tiwi woman. This gives you a place in Tiwi society, increases rapport and makes your fieldwork easier and a lot more successful. Subsequently, her biological sons come to visit you and ask permission to “cover up” your Tiwi mother, because she is getting very old. This decision can only be made by her sons, and must be unanimous.

“Covering up” is the act of burying someone up to the neck, and leaving them to try and get out of the hole by themselves. If the person is too feeble, the person will die, but no-one will have killed her. This is considered a very natural death in the Tiwi tradition.

5.1 Should you accept or deny the demand, and explain how denying or accepting the “cover up” will influence your relationship with the clan elders from whom you need information? (2.5 pts)

5.2 How does this incident suggest a different attitude towards the value of life? (2.5 pts).

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