American Anthropological Association (AAA) and Ethics

Introduction

The American Anthropological Association (AAA), established in 1902 and currently with over 10,000 members, has a long and conflicted history of professional ethics. Originally comprised mainly of academic anthropologists, the organization now features members from a diverse set of educational backgrounds and employment positions. Anthropologists today can be found in the board room examining organizational behavior, in a hospital room observing patients, or in the classroom assessing the significance of archaeology at a construction site. Anthropologists undertake a particularly wide array of research methods, from physical measurements and blood draws by biological anthropologists to ethnographic interviewing and participant observation by cultural anthropologists, to the collection of artifacts and oral histories by archaeologists, and more. As a result, anthropologists encounter wide-ranging instances of ethical dilemmas and debates.

Key Issues

Over the century of its...