Ethical Issues

 

Should one make public anthropological data which could be used by politicians, by businessmen or others with ulterior motives to exploit the subjects of study; by the military conducting counter-insurgency operations, by missionaries intending to evangelicize, or by pothunters? How can an anthropologist investigating religious cults discuss and publish what the group considers secret knowledge?

 

Should funding agencies/firms for whom anthropologists serve as consultants have exclusive rights to information gathered? Should they have rights to edit an anthropologist’s work? What stipulations for information access and the use of their data can researchers negotiate for in their contracts with sources of funding?

 

During the 16th UGAT Conference held at General Santos City the workshop group discussed in concrete terms these ethical dilemmas faced by anthropologists in the Philippines and identified the following areas of concern:

 

-         conference protocol. (How to critique colleagues and question the validity of a research’s methodology)

 

-         accountability and responsibility of the researcher to:

 

a)    protecting her/his respondents/subjects of study and informing them of the implications of the research

b)    to the interests of the discipline of Anthropology, to fellow researchers, and to students of anthropology,

c)     to the funding agency.

 

-         keeping track of the entry and research activities of foreigners.

-         publications by non-academics which affect popular perception of the anthropologists’ subjects of study. (e.g. antique dealers who publish book son antiquities which are then used as references and also serve to raise the market value of the artifacts, psuedo-ethnogra-phies.)

 

-         lack of information and low awareness among anthropologists, researchers and the general public on existing laws on cultural property and intellectual property, as well as existing policies concerning museum work in the Philippines.

 

-         the need for assessment and evaluation of he validity and reliability of different research methodologies and their ethical implications. (e.g. the Rapid Rural Appraisal)

 

-         the need for consistent editorial policy in the UGAT journal AGHAMTAO regarding contributions, reviews, advertisements, etc.

 

It was recommended that UGAT should:

 

1. Convene an ethics committee to review particular cases and to recommend guidelines.  This committee should review and assess relevant existing documents and laws with the assistance of legal organizations and file legal complaints in specific cases in order to test the laws and to set precedents. It should also assess and evaluate the role of state agencies (e.g. the NCCA, the National Museum. the UP Department of Anthropology) in the promotion of the discipline and in addressing these concerns.

 

2. Remind moderators of conference sessions of their important role in identifying key points, facilitating discussion, and facilitating professional behavior.

 

3. See to it that when papers on particular ethnic groups are presented in UGAT conferences, there be a native of the same group serving as reactor or presenting a paper too.

 

4. Prepare sample research consultancy contracts to help guide anthropologists in the process of negotiating contracts. Copies of sample contracts and consultancy per diem rates should be kept on file for reference of members.

 

5. Emphasize that anthropological researches should be public records. It is unethical for any agency to have exclusive control of information produces by fieldwork; these are the intellectual property of the researcher and anthropologist as professional.

 

6. Encourage foreign anthropologists to be members of UGAT.

 

7. Require that all researchers (both local and foreign) should leave a copy of their thesis or research output at an institution in the source community.

 

8. Facilitate more opportunities for exchange among anthropologists in the form of colloquia, reviews of publications, etc.

 

9. Set editorial policy and produce a stylebook for the journal Aghamtao.

 

10. Act as a clearinghouse for particular cases that may be raised.

 

 

(Published in UGAT Newsletter Special Issue 1995 pages 3-5)