Since the inception of their discipline, anthropologists have studied virtually every conceivable aspect of other peoples' morality - religion, social control, sin, virtue, evil, duty, purity and pollution. But what of the examination of anthropology itself, and of its agendas, epistemes, theories and praxes? In 1991, Raymond Firth spoke of social anthropology as an essentially moral discipline. Is such a view outmoded in a postmodern era? Do anthropological ethics have to be re-thought each generation as the conditions of the discipline change, and as choices collide with moral alternatives? The Ethics of Anthropology looks at some of these crucial issues as they reflect on researcher relations, privacy, authority, secrecy and ownership of knowledge. The book combines theoretical papers and case studies from eminent scholars including Lisette Josephides, Steven Nugent, Marilyn Silverman, Andrew Spiegel and Veronica Strang. Showing how the topic of ethics goes to the heart of anthropology, it raises the controversial question of why - and for whom - the anthropological discipline functions.
Author(s): Pat Caplan
Edition: 1
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 256
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of plates......Page 8
List of contributors......Page 10
Preface......Page 14
Introduction: anthropology and ethics......Page 16
Debates......Page 50
'Like a horse in blinkers'?: a political history of anthropology's research ethics......Page 52
'Being there': the magic of presence or the metaphysics of morality?......Page 70
The Yanomami: anthropological discourse and ethics......Page 92
'The blind men and the elephant': the challenge of representing the Rwandan genocide......Page 111
Dilemmas......Page 128
Everyday ethics: a personal journey in rural Ireland, 1980 2001......Page 130
'To tell or not to tell?': ethics and secrecy in anthropology and childbearing in rural Malawi......Page 148
The construction of otherness in modern Greece: the state, the church and the study of a religious minority......Page 170
An appropriate question?: the propriety of anthropological analysis in the Australian political arena......Page 187
British paganism, morality and the politics of knowledge......Page 210
Revealing a popular South African deceit: the ethical challenges of an etymological exercise......Page 225
Index......Page 242
