Anthropology and ethics in America's declining imperial age

Author: Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn

Source: Anthropology Today, Volume 24, Number 4, August 2008 , pp. 18-22(5)

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Abstract:

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have made US imperialism more evident to a global mass audience. Military and political failures in these wars have led to a recruitment of anthropologists who again found to be of value in wartime engagement. Debates have occurred in the pages of this journal, and elsewhere, and professional concern is manifest in the creation in 2006 of the AAA Commission on Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and Intelligence Communities whose work has been extended until 2010. The Commission released its Final Report in November 2007. It neither opposed nor encouraged engagement, but laid out an initial framework of the issues for discussion, debate and decision-making. This article describes some of the ethical dilemmas for anthropologists, and unresolved issues. The present era calls for basic education - both in ethical principles and in their ambiguities, vigorous debate, and sustained review of the statements and codes by professional associations.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2008.00601.x

Affiliations: 1: Professor of Anthropology at Rhode Island College, and editor of Ethics and the profession of anthropology,: Dialogue for ethically conscious practice (Rowman Altamira, 2003). Her is:, Email: cfluehr@ric.edu.

Publication date: 2008-08-01