Ethics and the Profession of Anthropology

This revised second edition of Ethics and the Profession of Anthropology renews the challenge to anthropologists to engage in a dialogue concerning their commitment to professional ethical conduct. Containing a majority of new chapters, the authors redefine what it means to conduct anthropological research ethically in a discipline that is now less isolated from allied fields in the physical and behavioral sciences and coming to terms with the global changes that affect its practice. Fluehr-Lobban provides an overview of issues from the past 110 years, drawing attention to the need for maintaining the ethical core of the discipline and a code of professional responsibility. The contributors describe a series of crises in the discipline involving clandestine research and other questionable actions by anthropologists, including secret research and intelligence work by academics; the ethical problems of medical work among native people; the evolution of cyber-ethics; and the changing relationships between indigenous people, archaeologists and museums as a result of the 1990 NAGPRA repatriation legislation. The book offers an excellent model for integrating ethics education at all levels of instruction and for empowering and engaging communities. It will be a valuable tool for anthropological researchers, instructors and fieldworkers as they transform their professional practice.

Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban is Professor of Anthropology at Rhode Island College.