Anthropologists on the War Path and Their Related Moral Dilemmas
Abstract
In the history of anthropology, that is, a science whose borders have considerably shifted, the object of study has continually changed but there has been a prevailing conviction about the unusual sensitivity of its practices; however, such sensitivity has not been discussed by researchers in the context of wars, military intelligence, or other military endeavors. When the history of this discipline is recounted as it is by Michał Kowalski in the book Antropolodzy na wojnie [Anthropologists on War], through the prism of the complications involved in direct activities of this type, it forces one to reflect on the ethical principles that should guide field researchers. Historical analyses of such sensitive material should also incline scholars to greater methodological awareness and avoidance of the trap of presentism.
Keywords
history of anthropology; methodology of the history of anthropology; anthropology and war; anthropology and colonialism
Jagiellonian University Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3193-3634
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