In Harmonium

Being in the main the musings of a Symbolic Anthropologist

Some thoughts on why ethics are important

Marc | September 24, 2008

In much of the debate over the past several years on the potential ethical dangers of the relationship between Anthropology and the Military, the vast majority of the ethical concerns that have been raised have, to my mind, been based on a collectivist model of ethics (aka “morality”).  I’ve noted this in a several posts [...]

Untangling ethics 2: lying and “Truth”

Marc | September 2, 2008

One of the more interesting ethical problems in the Anthropologists cannon is the question of when you are required to lie.  For me, it is not only three particular question of when you must lie but, in reality, the perceptual assumptions that structure that “ethical” injunction.  This wasn’t much of a problem for me in [...]

Untangling Ethics: A framework for Anthropology

Marc | July 14, 2008

In a recent blog post, Max Forte dissected the Human Terrain System’s (HTS) Top Misconceptions page. Now, in general, I have not been very kind about most of the attacks on the HTS and Max’s post is definitely an attack. It is, however, qualitatively different, in my opinion, from the majority of other [...]