The Ethics of Anthropology

250 Pages·2004·3.15 MB·English

by  Pat Caplan (edt)

THE ETHICS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Since the inception of their discipline, anthropologists have studied virtually every
conceivable aspect of other people’s 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 practices? In 1991, Raymond Firth spoke
of social anthropology as an essentially moral discipline. Is such a view outmoded in
the postmodern era? Do anthropological ethics have to be rethought 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, Stephen 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.
Pat Caplan is Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of
London, and former Chair of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and
Commonwealth. Her books with Routledge include Class and Gender in India(1985),
The Cultural Construction of Sexuality (1987), Gendered Fields (1993), African Voices,
African Lives (1997) and Food, Health and Identity (1997).

THE ETHICS OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
Debates and dilemmas
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First published 2003
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USAand Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2003 Selection and editorial matter, Pat Caplan;
individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The ethics of anthropology / edited by Pat Caplan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Anthropological ethics. I. Caplan, Patricia.
GN33.6.E86 2003
174'.9309–dc21
2002045494
ISBN 0-203-63367-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-63707-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-29642-0 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-29643-9 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of plates vii
List of contributors ix
Preface xiii
1 Introduction: anthropology and ethics 1
PATCAPLAN
PART I 35
Debates
2 ‘Like a horse in blinkers’?: a political history of anthropology’s
research ethics 37
DAVIDMILLS
3 ‘Being there’: the magic of presence or the metaphysics of morality? 55
LISETTEJOSEPHIDES
4 The Yanomami: anthropological discourse and ethics 77
STEPHENNUGENT
5 ‘The blind men and the elephant’: the challenge of representing the
Rwandan genocide 96
NIGELELTRINGHAM
PART II 113
Dilemmas
6 Everyday ethics: a personal journey in rural Ireland, 1980–2001 115
MARILYNSILVERMAN
v
CONTENTS
7 ‘To tell or not to tell?’: ethics and secrecy in anthropology and
childbearing in rural Malawi 133
GILLBARBER
8 The construction of otherness in modern Greece: the state, the church
and the study of a religious minority 155
VASILIKIKRAVVA
9 An appropriate question?: the propriety of anthropological analysis in
the Australian political arena 172
VERONICASTRANG
10 British paganism, morality and the politics of knowledge 195
SUSANGREENWOOD
11 Revealing a popular South African deceit: the ethical challenges of an
etymological exercise 210
ANDREWSPIEGEL
Index 227
vi
PLATES
7.1 Village azambadancing with other women 136
7.2 Practical and symbolic art: a Zulu head-dress which influenced
the design of a village azamba’s placenta disposal pit 144
7.3 Digging with a hoe in the long grass, Queenie demonstrates
her knowledge of plant materials which strengthen the blood of
anaemic women 145
9.1 Kunjen elder Paddy Yam points out the site of a massacre in his
grandparents’ generation 173
9.2 Kunjen elder Colin Lawrence describes the history of a large
grave site 185
vii

CONTRIBUTORS
Gill Barberis a midwife and nurse as well as an anthropologist. She has a particular
interest in using anthropology as a means of understanding women’s health and
the experience of pregnancy and birth. She worked in Senegal soon after
qualifying as a midwife, and then taught for many years at the Royal College of
Nursing in London. She now works independently as an anthropologist, teacher
and advisor in midwifery, nursing and education and is currently involved in a
safe motherhood partnership project with Kenyan and UK professional
organisations. She is also about to complete her PhD thesis entitled ‘The
processes of childbearing in rural Malawi: an ethnographic study of knowledge,
risk perception and decision making in a matrilineal community’ at Goldsmiths
College.
Pat Caplan is Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of
London. She has carried out fieldwork in Tanzania, Nepal, Madras City, and in
Wales, and has published a number of monographs and edited collections. From
1998 to 2000, she was seconded for three years to serve as Director of the
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study in the University
of London. She also served as Chair of the Association of Social Anthropologists
from 1997 to 2001. Most recently, she has been working on issues of food, which
has led to an interest in risk, the subject of her latest book, Risk Revisited(Pluto
2000), and now in ethics and morality. She currently holds a Leverhulme
Research Fellowship, and is working on local understandings of modernity in
Tanzania.
Nigel Eltringham is a postdoctoral researcher (funded by the ESRC) in the
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London. He has previously worked for a conflict resolution
and development NGO in Rwanda and in rural development in Latin America.
A book based on his PhD thesis is to be published by Pluto Press in 2003
(Accounting for Horror: Post-Genocide Debates in Rwanda).
Susan Greenwood is a Lecturer in the School of Cultural and Community Studies
at the University of Sussex, an Open University Associate Lecturer, and Visiting
ix