i'~ . /;; Ethics and the Profession of Anthropology Dialogue for a New Era edited by Q Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia SUNY - ALBANY UNIVERSITY LJ!lRMIES .lill3ANY, NY 12222 for Richard) COPYRIGHT © I99I BY THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED t;tnd the rich life we share Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ethics and the profession of anthropology: dialogue for a new era I edited by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8122-8157-8 r. Anthropological ethics. I. Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn. GN33.6.E84 1991 174'.9309-dC20 90-13043 CIP Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Introduction Ethics in Anthropologx the Past and the Present HISTORICALLY, discussions of ethics in anthropology have reflected the issues and events of the day. The 1980s have demonstrated that there is a crisis in ethics in basic U.S. institutions such as business, government, law, medicine, and religion. Indeed, a confusion over ethical principles and practices is pervasive in American society today, with very few dear stan­ dards for which there is general consensus. This crisis has developed along with rapid changes in society that have emphasized individualism and uprooted traditional values. Decisions regarding right and wrong have become a matter of personal judgment without much reference to societal needs and the commonweal. Current discussion on anthropological ethics has been prompted somewhat by these broader developments, but is also a consequence of an internal evolution that is peculiar to the field itself. In anthropology, the old order is no longer operative. Throughout this century until the 1970s, an­ thropologists were trained to conduct field research among Native Ameri­ cans (''American Indians" then) or in other small-scale, non-Western cul­ tures with the understanding that they would return to spend their lives as scholars and teachers in secure academic positions. However, in the post­ Vietnam War period, the number of available jobs in the social sciences and humanities dropped off markedly, affecting the discipline of anthropology severely.. By the end of the 1970s, anthropology and philosophy were tied for last place in their ability to place new Ph.D .'s in academic positions. For the next decade, academic openings in anthropology were nearly frozen at all levels, but were especially critical in the entry-level instructor and assis­ tant professor categories. The discipline struggled to come to terms with this new reality. A number of new initiatives were undertaken in an effort to find employment for a generation of professionally trained anthropologists with few or no 4 Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Introduction 5 prospects for academic work. A crisis developed and deepened as the field For generations, anthropologists have been trained in the importance found itself tom between the old, established academic traditions of an­ of holism, a unified view of humanity embracing physical and cultural thropology and the need to assist in the construction of a new reality, antlitopology as well as archaeology and linguistics. The unifying concept one that would embrace the concept of nonacademic employment as legiti­ has been culture, that uniquely human attribute, that could be studied mate for anthropologists. New organizations appeared, such as the Wash­ throughout time and space from diverse research perspectives. Despite the ington Area Practicing Anthropologists (WAPA) and the National Asso­ hopeful words that holism would be maintained in the restructuring, it may ciation of Practicing Anthropologists (NAPA). Applied anthropology, be that the discipline was fostering its own dismemberment. Articles began which had an established semiautonomous organization, the Society for to appear in the Anthropology Newsletter regarding the crisis in the General Applied Anthropology (SfAA), since 1941, changed in the 1980s from its Anthropology Division and the future of the association (e.g., Forman et tributary status to join the mainstream, conceptually, if not organiza­ al. 1987). The problem of the progressive fragmentation of the field as a tionally. whole was raised openly for the first time, while a plea was made to By the mid-198os, the demographic composition of anthropology had investigate the long-term, unintended consequences of the restructuring been transformed. More professionally trained anthropologists were em­ process. ployed in nonacademic jobs than in the academy. Through its major profes­ sional organization, the American Anthropological Association (AAA), ·the discipline hoped to find a solution to its crisis through reorganization The Employment Crunch and "reprofessionalization," to use Hakken's term from this volume. The reorganization of the AAA began in 1981 and was justified as The overriding context within which the ethics crisis has occurred has been addressing the growing specialized needs of the professional in anthropol­ the drastic reduction in available academic positions for anthropologists ogy. This process was finalized with the formal reorganization of the AAA since the mid-197os. The decline that began in the 1970s was reflected in in 1984, when nine affiliated societies signed a merger agreement with the unemployment figures in the 1980s: n percent in 1981-82 and 19 percent in AAA. Five new AAA units were created: General Anthropology, Archaeol­ 1985-86 of the visible, actively searching anthropological professionals were ogy, Biological Anthropology, Linguistics, and the Practice of Anthropol­ unable to find any employment. Many of the younger professionals who ogy. These, together with the newer Societies for Psychological Anthro­ obtained their Ph.D.'s in the decade between 1975 and 1985 entered a pology, for Humanistic Anthropology, for Medical Anthropology, and for marginal academic job market where they were forced to move from one Latin American Anthropology, joined the venerable American Ethnologi­ temporary or part-time teaching position to another, and the term "Gypsy cal Society (est. 1842) to form a new, and presumably stronger, AAA. scholar" was coined to describe this new phenomenon. The reorganized association was to be more democratic and more A further group of "invisibles," estimated in 1986 at between two accessible to the scholarly and professional needs of the membership. As of thousand and five thousand, were unemployed professionals no longer this writing (1990) fourteen affiliated societies or units are now included in seeking jobs in anthropology or maintaining membership in the American the organizational structure of the AAA, and doubts have been raised as to Anthropological Association (Helm, 1987). the ability of the organization to bind all of these diverse affiliates together In 1986, for the first time since the founding of the AAA in 1902, more into a coherent whole called "anthropology." Certain large and long-lived anthropologists (51 percent) were employed outside academia than inside. organizations, such as the Society for Applied Anthropology and the So­ Given the significant numbers of unemployed and "invisible" anthropolo­ ciety of American Archaeology, however, declined to join the AAA as af­ gists, academic employment had even less importance in the field. filiated organizations, thus a very considerable number of professional and In the 1985-86 survey conducted by the AAA (Anthropology Newsletter, practicing anthropologists would not claim, after reorganization, member­ 1987), the average anthropologist was described as thirty-eight years old, ship in the American Anthropological Association. female, white, married, childless, with average earnings of twenty-four 6 Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Introduction 7 thousand dollars. She funded her own field research in cultural anthropol­ tional" employment in anthropology, on how to market oneself as a generic ogy, most commonly in North America. (The relatively higher age average social scientist. Indeed, the average anthropologist in the 1985-86 survey apparently reflects a large number of older women who have pursued employed outside of academia most frequently held a job with the title advanced degrees later in life.) The 52 percent majority of females in the "Program Director," a position where research and writing are typically profession is consistent with the discipline's historical openness to women. combined with administration and program evaluation. However; the low salary average of this majority demonstrates both the Overall, q.onacademic anthropologists earned more in salary than aca­ competitive weakness of the field as well as the overall lower earning power demic anthropologists, and men earned more than women in both arenas, of women in the United States. although the discrepancy was less in the nonacademic positions. The mean These figures offer a more general context for the discussion of the academic salary for a new male Ph.D. was $21,768in1985-86, while the new deepening crisis in anthropology. During the same time period in most female Ph.D. in academia earned a mean salary of $16,960. For non­ major American cities, the average salary for public school teachers ex­ academic work, salaries are better. The mean salary for a male Ph.D. was ceeded the twenty-four-thousand-dollar average for the employed anthro­ $25,879 in 1985-86, while it was $23,879 for the woman Ph.D. The message pologist. While the appropriate terminal degree for a teacher is the bach­ is clear.