After a five-year review process, members of the American Anthropological Association have approved a rigorous overhaul of their ethics code. The code offers guidance to anthropologists as to how they should conduct themselves in professional and academic settings, in collecting and disseminating research data, and in their relationships with research subjects, colleagues and students. The new document, titled “Statement on Ethics: Principles of Professional Responsibility,” strengthens the previous ethics code, adapts it to the digital age, and makes use of a fundamentally new format. Members were given six weeks to vote on the code, which was approved by an overwhelming 93 percent of those who voted.
The first AAA ethics code was written in 1971, in response to controversies over the Vietnam War. Where previous AAA ethics codes resembled straightforward legal codes, the new Principles of Professional Responsibility take the form of a hyperlinked living document in a simple, user-friendly format. While still offering guidance for ethical conduct in the form of general principles, the new document features embedded hypertext links to pertinent case study materials, reference documents, websites and articles. The Statement has a series of references after each defining principle to allow the readers to find further sources of information and data. These resources give readers a richer sense of the context of the ethics code and of specific dilemmas anthropologists have faced in their work. (more…)
Filed under: Association Business, Ethics | Tagged: AAA Code of Ethics, AAA President Leith Mullings, Committee on Ethics, Dena Plemmons, Hugh Gusterson, Monica Heller, Statement on Ethics: Principles of Professional Responsibility | 1 Comment »
Indiana Jones is to Anthropology as Fred Flintstone is to Neolithic Life
Below is a copy of the Letter to the Editor of the New York Times Magazine by President Mullings in response to the recent article by Emily Eakin.
To the Editor,
While we recognize that the figure of Indiana Jones is attractive, it is about as useful for understanding anthropology as Fred Flintstone is for understanding life in the Neolithic. Your article perpetuates an outdated and narrow stereotype of our profession. The 11,000 members of the American Anthropological Association alone actually spend their time doing a vast array of things. Today’s anthropologists can be found in such diverse endeavors as leading the World Bank, designing health care for areas devastated by disaster, or researching the causes of the 2008 recession or the deaths of 100 boys in a defunct reform school in Florida. The representation of a field paralyzed by debates about ‘science, ’ vs. ‘advocacy ’ is similarly inaccurate, given the non-polarized ways most anthropologists today understand ‘science’, ‘advocacy’ and the nature of the field. The article also misses one of Napoleon Chagnon’s lasting legacies to our field: the reminder to engage in constant reflection about anthropological ethics. The American Anthropological Association recently did just that, releasing its new Statement on Ethics: Principles of Professional Responsibility in October 2012. Finally, we consider lively debate neither dangerous nor self-serving: it is a key to knowledge.
Leith Mullings
President
American Anthropological Association
Distinguished Professor
Graduate Center, City University of New York
Filed under: Advocacy, Anthro in the Media, Association Business, Commentary, Ethics, Public Affairs | Tagged: anthropology, Emily Eakin, Indiana Jones, Leith Mullings, Napoleon Chagnon, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, science vs advocacy, Statement on Ethics: Principles of Professional Responsibility | 8 Comments »