What are we going to do today?

What are we going to do today? Ethical Issues in Anthropological Research A few examples of historical blunders in ethical issues AAA Statement of Ethics Our dillemmas

Ethical Issues in Anthropology What are the main issues? How do we deal with these issues?

Our personal ethical values • What are they? • Where do they come from? • How do they influence our lives?

Why Ethical Issues in Anthropology? • Research with human beings • Taking away materials (archeological sites) • Context of inequality [researcher and researched] • Use of knowledge—public opinion/ public policies/ intervention strategies—impact on the lives of people we study • Demands from the ‘subjects’

Anthropologists: web of their relationships • Subjects • Academic institution (university, research institutions) • Professional community • Sponsoring institutions/organizations • Broader public

The Hottentot Venus 1810-1815 Ota Benga 1904 Yanomami 1968/2001 Ethical Scandals in Anthropology

Saartjie Baartman“Hottentot Venus”

Ota Benga • Bronx Zoo 1906 • "Exhibited each afternoon during September."

Yanomami • Napolean Chagnon • James Neel • 1968 measles epidemic • Video portrayal • Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon by John Tierney, 2000

Scandal snowballs • 2001 AAA task force begins inquiry, findings approved • 2002 AAA votes to rescind approval of the El Dorado Task Force findings

AAA Statements on Ethics • Adopted by the council of the AAA-May 1971 Preamble “ They are involved with their discipline, their colleagues, their students, their sponsors, their subjects, their own and host governments, the particular individuals and groups with whom they do their field work in the nations within which they work, and the study of processes and issues affecting general human welfare.”

AAA statements contd…... “It is prime responsibility of anthropologists to anticipate these and to plan to resolve them in such a way as to do damage neither to those whom they study nor, insofar as possible, to their scholarly community. Where these conditions cannot be met, the anthropologist would be well-advised not to pursue the particular piece of research.” (Italics added)

Responsibility to those studied • Rights, interests, and sensitivities of those studied must be safeguarded • Communication of the aims • Right to annonymity (unintentional compromise) • No exploitation--fair return/compensation • Reflection upon foreseeable repurcussions • No clandestine reporting/research (no secret reports to sponsors) • Accept the cultural and social plurality

Responsibilities to the Public • Full public disclosue of the findings • Integretiy in presenting their findings--opinions and the bases of them • Contribute to an “adequate definition of reality” upon which public opinion and public policy may be based • Honesty--and cognizant of limitations

Responsibility to the Discipline • No secret research or any research which cannot be freely derived and publicly reported--avoid even the appearance of doing clandestine research • Not jeopardize future research-- “commitment to honesty, open inquiry, clear communication of sponsorship and research aims, and concern for the welfare and privacy of informants

Responsibility to Discipline contd... • No plagiarism • Non-discrimination in hiring, retention and advancement

Responsibility to Students • Non-discrimination in selection • Alert students on ethical issues and problems • Responsive to students’ interests, opinions and desires in their academic work and relationships • Realistic counselling in career opportunitie

Responsibility to students contd... • Supervse, encourage and support • Communicate well on expectation from their course of study, • Fair and transparent evaluation • Acknowledgements of students assistancship • Due credit--co-authorship if used for publication

Responsibility to the Sponsors • Honest about their aims based on full knowledge about the sponsors’ aims, history • Clear about unconditionality so that academic work could not be compromised • Accepting only through full disclosure of information from the sponsors

Responsibility to Governments Host Government and Own Government • Honesty in communication • Demanding assurance of non-interference • No secret reporting, debriefings or research to be accepted

Chiapas: Who owns the medicine in the jungle?

Satellite map of Mexico

Map of Chiapas

Bioprospecting: • the search for new chemicals in living things that will have some medical or commercial use. -- the collecting and testing of biological samples (plants, animals, micro-organisms) -- and the collecting of indigenous knowledge to help find and exploit genetic or biochemical resources

Or Biopiracy? • Appropriation of the knowledge and genetic resources of farming and indigenous communities by individuals or institutions who seek exclusive monopoly control (patents or intellectual property) over these resources and knowledge.

Players in the Chiapas Bioprospecting/piracy issue: • Consejo (original group of 11 Mayan organizations, 13 other groups later joined in support) • International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) -- U.S. Government’s National Institute of Health (NIH) • University of Georgia Anthropologists • RAFI (now ETC)

Issues • Ownership/control of knowledge • Prior Informed Consent (PIC) • Moral/religious objections to patenting life and GMO • Insufficient governmental regulatory mechanisms

Dilemma: Is ethically sound and non-exploitative bioprospecting possible? Under what circumstances?

Conclusion • Anthropology has a long history of ethical scandals; • This history has forced anthropology to be more self-critical than other academic disciplines

What are we going to do today?