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 with employment both inside and outside of the academy. Anthropologists today can be found in the classroom, the boardroom examining organizational behavior, in a hospital room observing practitioners, or at a construction site assessing the significance of archaeology. 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

Since its founding, the AAA has...