Lisa
Oona and Emilia
Amy
Jason
Richard, Sheron & Sean
Damon
Dion
Bill Davis
Sabrina
Kathleen Terry-Sharp
Angel Jackson-White
Joslyn O.
americananthro1902
Michael F. Brown
I’m pleased to announce that September Anthropology News In Focus commentaries on codifying ethics are now available on our Current Featured News page. Full September content will be available soon through AnthroSource. We encourage readers to submit responses to the series on ethics either on this blog, or in letters to the editor (up to 400 words, to dwinnick [at] aaanet.org) for possible publication in AN.
September AN also features the preliminary program for this year’s AAA meeting in Philadelphia. Changes have been made to the program since it went to press, so be sure to check the searchable online program for the most current information.
The call for proposals for our January issue on the anthropology of water is open until September 21, and we encourage early submissions. Also, don’t forget that our photo contest is also accepting entries through October 1.
Filed under: Publications
Apropos of Janet Levy’s article in the September issue of Anthropology News on the question of whether AAA should reinstitute a procedure for enforcing its code of ethics (“Life is full of hard choices: a grievance procedure for the AAA?”), and the current deliberations by the AAA Ethics Committee on this issue, AAA members may be interested to know that the same issue has recently been the subject of an inquiry by the Executive of the Australian Anthropological Society (AAS), and that its report and the supporting documents are available online at http://www.aas.asn.au/aas_organisation.php.
In brief, our findings are that:
-The AAS’s current Code of Ethics serves educative and integrative functions. It does not serve a regulatory function.
- This current arrangement is the most advisable and viable for the AAS.
- This current arrangement is in line with comparable associations (other national anthropological associations).
- Implementing and maintaining a regulatory function is beyond the aims and capacities of the AAS, especially given our modest budget and reliance on volunteers.
It is interesting to see that these findings are in close agreement with the views formed by Janet Levy on the basis of her experience as the Chair of the AAA Ethics Committee during a period when it did have a grievance procedure, notwithstanding the fact that AAA is a much larger and more amply resourced organization than AAS. Life is indeed full of hard choices — sometimes because things that seem worth doing are very difficult to do adequately, and have worse consequences if done inadequately than if not done at all. We agree with Janet Levy that this is one of them.
Linda Connor
University of Sydney
Holly High
University of Sydney
Alan Rumsey
Australian National University
for the Sub Committee on Ethics,
Australian Anthropological Society