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If Anthropology Is Global, Then So Are Its Ethical Dilemmas
Author(s) -
YOON SOONYOUNG
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2000.tb05584.x
Subject(s) - political anthropology , realm , multinational corporation , sociology , politics , field (mathematics) , environmental ethics , engineering ethics , epistemology , political science , law , philosophy , mathematics , pure mathematics , engineering
A bstract : This paper reviews three personal situations of the author as a student: an NGO activist in the women's movement and a UN official working on women's health and tobacco. Each situation, the kinds of ethical issue posed and lessons for the future direction of ethics in anthropology are outlined. The paper argues that applied anthropology is embedded in the position of the field of anthropology within the politics of the State and that this defines the parameters of individual choice. Contradictions in ethical situations and decision‐making are posed by changing from the distant observer to active involvement and these may not be resolved by logic alone. Furthermore, governance and defining global ethical standards such as for the behavior of the tobacco multinational corplorations is a fascinating new realm for anthropological ethical resolve.