Cory:
Describe the ethical issues that anthropologists experience when studying human subjects.
When anthropologists are observing a foreign society, they need to make sure that they do not harm the community in any way by obeying their rules and ethical codes. This can be difficult because the anthropologists may have their own moral obligations or religion, so they may have a different point of view than the foreign society and have a hard time dealing with the actions or beliefs of it.
(Anthropology and World Religions) The are many different types of ethical issues that could be found while conducting research in the middle east from the way that females are treated to the variations of the religious belief system that are held in that area of the world.
While this forum wants us to post about the different types of issues that could arise while researching humans it is hard to just list out the possible issues that could arise while conducting research. Due to the number of factors that can play into the issues coming up. From the beliefs of the person that you are studying to the beliefs that the anthropologist them selves hold.
You also could have an immense cultural difference between the person that you are studying to yourself that could cause you issue when trying to obtain your research. Though there are many different types of things that could lead to ethical issues anthropologist are true professionals and have learned the proper way to set these aside and conduct the job that they were trained to do.
Justin:
For this weeks forum, I think it would be fun to answer the second question. I love crime TV shows. I was in elementary school when the TV show Bones premiered. The show ran from 2005-2017. Monday- Friday TNT plays Bones episodes from noon till 3 or 4 pm.
They do it year round. I am a fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer so it was pretty cool to see the vampire love interest of Buffy now playing an FBI agent. The main character is Temperance Brennan. She is a forensic anthropologist who is extremely brilliant. In the beginning she is just a forensics anthropologist just doing her thing. She meets FBI agent Seeley Booth. He asks her to help him on a case, after they solve the case he is impressed with Dr. Brennan's skills with how she can examine a deceased body and know details about the person.
I think the portrayal of Dr. Brennan's research so far convers some stuff we have learned in the course so far. Dr. Brennan examines either bodies of genocide or bodies that have been deceased for many years. Also, for a lot of episodes is has an archaeology type of feel since they are at the crime scenes digging and examining the bodies and taking pictures. It seems like the crimes scenes are some what treated like an archaeology site. Overall, I think its a pretty good show and I was sad to see it end. I think that it was also a TV show where viewers could also learn archaeology/ anthropology terms. It is definitely worth the watch.
Zack:
Anthropologist must possess an ability to understand and adapt to unfamiliar cultures. Almost every culture will be different from one another. One culture may worship a specific animal while another sees that same animal as vermin.
If an anthropologist were to disrespect the worshipped animal while in the area where it's worshipped, then they could face many problems with the locals. The locals would in that area would find it unethical. However, if they did the same in a culture that doesn't worship said animal, then there would probably be little to no backlash. That doesn't mean you should go around insulting animals if everyone's ok with it.
The point is that the locals of wherever the anthropologists is working may not be as keen to share information or assist in any other way. If the anthropologist was relying to get the locals help with whatever task they were doing, then now they either have no way to continue working or would have to spend time to find an alternative method.
It's not going to be problems with the locals all the time. If an anthropologist can understand the culture they are in and respects the customs of the area, then it may help them understand their work better. For example, let's say that an anthropologist finds some human remains and the remains are divided up.
They are all placed in a very specific pattern. Now the anthropologist has a small dilemma. The customs of his current location are that bodies are to be handled in a very unusual manner. He doesn't quite understand the entire process, but members of his team do understand the process because they are from that area. The anthropologist decides to handle the body himself, without consulting the locals or the members of his team that know the process.
In doing so, he ruins the information that he could have gotten from the body and it's resting place. If he had handled it correctly, then he might have gotten a more accurate history of that body.
That was a long example, but the point is that if you know the customs of an area and respect them, the chances are you'll be able to do a better job.
I highly doubt that a trained anthropologist will run into problems quite as severe as these. It doesn't change the fact that if one can understand a culture that has different values than their own and respects them, then their work will be much more accurate and easier to obtain.