Editing Anthropology (section)

==Ethics==
As the field has matured it has debated and arrived at ethical principles aimed at protecting both the subjects of anthropological research as well as the researchers themselves, and professional societies have generated codes of ethics.<ref>{{cite web|title=Final Report of the Commission to Review the AAA Statements on Ethics – Participate & Advocate|url=http://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1911&RDtoken=3371&userID=6944|publisher=American Anthropological Association|access-date=18 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=18 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918101620/http://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1911&RDtoken=3371&userID=6944|url-status=live}}</ref>

Anthropologists, like other researchers (especially historians and scientists engaged in field research), have over time assisted state policies and projects, especially colonialism.<ref name = "pbuteh">Asad, Talal, ed. (1973) ''Anthropology & the Colonial Encounter.'' Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.</ref><ref>van Breman, Jan, and Akitoshi Shimizu (1999) ''Anthropology and Colonialism in Asia and Oceania''. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.</ref>

Some commentators have contended:
* That the discipline grew out of colonialism, perhaps was in league with it, and derives some of its key notions from it, consciously or not. (See, for example, Gough, Pels and Salemink, but cf. Lewis 2004).<ref name=Gellner>Gellner, Ernest (1992) [http://okhovvat.com/files/en/content/2011/6/4/351_379.pdf ''Postmodernism, Reason, and Religion''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403010839/http://okhovvat.com/files/en/content/2011/6/4/351_379.pdf |date=3 April 2017 }}. London/New York: Routledge. pp. 26–29. {{ISBN|0-415-08024-X}}.</ref>
* That ethnographic work is often ahistorical, writing about people as if they were "out of time" in an "ethnographic present" (Johannes Fabian, ''Time and Its Other'').
* In his article "The Misrepresentation of Anthropology and Its Consequences," [[Herbert S. Lewis]] critiqued older anthropological works that presented other cultures as if they were strange and unusual. While the findings of those researchers should not be discarded, the field should learn from its mistakes.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lewis|first=Herbert S.|date=1998|title=The Misrepresentation of Anthropology and Its Consequences|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/682051|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=100|issue=3|pages=716–731|doi=10.1525/aa.1998.100.3.716|issn=0002-7294|jstor=682051|access-date=30 August 2017|archive-date=3 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403010337/http://www.jstor.org/stable/682051|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Cultural relativism ===
As part of their quest for [[scientific objectivity]], present-day anthropologists typically urge [[cultural relativism]], which has an influence on all the sub-fields of anthropology.<ref name="Ingold1994p331"/> This is the notion that cultures should not be judged by another's values or viewpoints, but be examined dispassionately on their own terms. There should be no notions, in good anthropology, of one culture being better or worse than another culture.<ref>{{cite book|last=Levi-Strauss|first=Claude|year=1962|title=The Savage Mind}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Womack|first=Mari|year=2001|title=Being Human}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=October 2012}}

Ethical commitments in anthropology include noticing and documenting [[genocide]], [[infanticide]], [[racism]], [[sexism]], [[mutilation]] (including [[circumcision]] and [[subincision]]), and [[torture]]. Topics like racism, slavery, and human sacrifice attract anthropological attention and theories ranging from nutritional deficiencies,<ref>Harris, Marvin. ''Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches''.</ref> to genes,<ref>{{cite web |url-status=live |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=209831&sectioncode=26 |title=Is there a gene for racism? |website=Times Higher Education |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522193840/http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=209831&sectioncode=26 |archive-date=22 May 2011 |date=August 3, 2007 |access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> to [[acculturation]], to [[colonialism]], have been proposed to explain their origins and continued recurrences.

To illustrate the depth of an anthropological approach, one can take just one of these topics, such as racism, and find thousands of anthropological references, stretching across all the major and minor sub-fields.<ref>{{cite web|title=Statement on "Race"|url=http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm|publisher=American Anthropological Association|date=May 17, 1998|access-date=17 April 2007|archive-date=27 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627184228/http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1126/science.282.5389.654 |pmid=9841421 |title=Cultural Anthropology: DNA Studies Challenge the Meaning of Race |journal=Science |volume=282 |issue=5389 |pages=654–655 |year=1998 |last1=Marshall |first1=E. |bibcode=1998Sci...282..654M |s2cid=22257033 }}</ref><ref>Goodman, Allan (1995). "The Problematics of "Race" in Contemporary Biological Anthropology." In ''Biological Anthropology: The State of the Science''. International Institute for Human Evolutionary Research. {{ISBN|0-9644248-0-0}}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330360604|title=Melanin, afrocentricity, and pseudoscience|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=36|pages=33–58|year=1993|last1=De Montellano|first1=Bernard R. Ortiz|url=https://www.academia.edu/199944|access-date=10 November 2016|archive-date=5 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305074808/https://www.academia.edu/199944/Melanin_Afrocentricity_and_Pseudoscience|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Military involvement===
Anthropologists' involvement with the U.S. government, in particular, has caused bitter controversy within the discipline. [[Franz Boas]] publicly objected to US participation in World War I, and after the war, he published a brief exposé and condemnation of the participation of several American archaeologists in espionage in Mexico under their cover as scientists.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Browman|first=David|date=22 November 2011|title=Spying by American Archaeologists in World War I|journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology|language=en|volume=21|issue=2|pages=10–17|doi=10.5334/bha.2123|issn=2047-6930|doi-access=free}}</ref>

But by the 1940s, many of Boas' anthropologist contemporaries were active in the allied war effort against the [[Axis Powers]] (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan). Many served in the armed forces, while others worked in intelligence (for example, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] and the [[Office of War Information]]). At the same time, [[David Price (anthropologist)|David H. Price]]'s work on American anthropology during the Cold War provides detailed accounts of the pursuit and dismissal of several anthropologists from their jobs for communist sympathies.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Price|first=David H.|date=1 June 1998|title=Cold war anthropology: Collaborators and victims of the national security state|journal=Identities|volume=4|issue=3–4|pages=389–430|doi=10.1080/1070289X.1998.9962596|issn=1070-289X}}</ref>

Attempts to accuse anthropologists of complicity with the CIA and government intelligence activities during the Vietnam War years have turned up little. Many anthropologists (students and teachers) were active in the antiwar movement. Numerous resolutions condemning the war in all its aspects were passed overwhelmingly at the annual meetings of the [[American Anthropological Association]] (AAA).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Richard Borshay |title=The anti-imperialist tradition in North American anthropology: Vietnam, the Left Academy, and the founding of ARPA |journal=Dialectical Anthropology |date=June 2016 |volume=40 |issue=2 |page=60 |doi=10.1007/s10624-016-9412-y |jstor=43895186 |s2cid=146855589 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43895186 |access-date=24 October 2022}}</ref>

Professional anthropological bodies often object to the use of anthropology for the benefit of the [[State (polity)|state]]. Their codes of ethics or statements may proscribe anthropologists from giving secret briefings. The [[Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth]] (ASA) has called certain scholarship ethically dangerous. The "Principles of Professional Responsibility" issued by the American Anthropological Association and amended through November 1986 stated that "in relation with their own government and with host governments&nbsp;... no secret research, no secret reports or debriefings of any kind should be agreed to or given."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1656|title=Past AAA Statements on Ethics – Participate & Advocate|website=www.americananthro.org|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=10 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910222429/http://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1656|url-status=live}}</ref> The current "Principles of Professional Responsibility" does not make explicit mention of ethics surrounding state interactions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ethics.americananthro.org/category/statement/|title=Ethics Forum » Full Text of the 2012 Ethics Statement|website=Ethics Forum|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=2 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502191053/http://ethics.americananthro.org/category/statement/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Anthropologists, along with other social scientists, were working with the US military as part of the US Army's strategy in Afghanistan.<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0907/p01s08-wosc.htm US Army's strategy in Afghanistan: better anthropology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080211195702/http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0907/p01s08-wosc.htm |date=11 February 2008 }}. CSMonitor.com (7 September 2007). Retrieved on 2 November 2016.</ref> ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'' reports that "Counterinsurgency efforts focus on better grasping and meeting local needs" [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|in Afghanistan]], under the ''[[Human Terrain System]]'' (HTS) program; in addition, HTS teams are working with the [[US military in Iraq]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Human Terrain System: A CORDS for the 21st Century |url=http://www.army.mil/professionalWriting/volumes/volume4/december_2006/12_06_2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121225645/http://www.army.mil/professionalWriting/volumes/volume4/december_2006/12_06_2.html |archive-date=21 January 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2009, the American Anthropological Association's Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and Intelligence Communities (CEAUSSIC) released its final report concluding, in part, that: {{blockquote |text=When ethnographic investigation is determined by military missions, not subject to external review, where data collection occurs in the context of war, integrated into the goals of counterinsurgency, and in a potentially coercive environment – all characteristic factors of the HTS concept and its application – it can no longer be considered a legitimate professional exercise of anthropology. In summary, while we stress that constructive engagement between anthropology and the military is possible, CEAUSSIC suggests that the AAA emphasize the incompatibility of HTS with disciplinary ethics and practice for job seekers and that it further recognize the problem of allowing HTS to define the meaning of 'anthropology' within DoD.<ref>{{Cite report |title=Final Report on The Army's Human Terrain System Proof of Concept Program |date=2009-10-14 |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms-aaa/files/production/public/FileDownloads/pdfs/cmtes/commissions/CEAUSSIC/upload/CEAUSSIC_HTS_Final_Report.pdf |last=AAA Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and Intelligence Communities |access-date=2023-05-23 |publication-date=2009-10-14 |archive-date=29 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231029201022/https://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms-aaa/files/production/public/FileDownloads/pdfs/cmtes/commissions/CEAUSSIC/upload/CEAUSSIC_HTS_Final_Report.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}