Ethics

                Ethics is a part of our everyday life, it what we us in order to understand social dynamics with in family and friends. Ethics is also what we use as professionals, so that the public is never exploited. Like all professions visual anthropology has its own code of ethics, which are put in place so that the subjects of film and photographs are never exploited based on the views of the subject. Codes of ethics also help to give a guide line to the anthropologists to follow, so anthropologists are better  aware of what is excepted of them and what is truly the wrong way to show a social group/person/ or other subject.

In the Article “State of the Ethics in Visual Anthropology” it discusses the importance of gathering as a group of professionals in order to reflect on the past years research, and how that years research, film, and photographs were used in an ethical way. The Society of Visual Anthropology holds the “roundtable” each year. At each roundtable is somewhat forced participation by anthropologists to share their concerns about the research that they have been working on, and how follows the ethical rules established by the SVA. It is also to show the audience of the meeting the ethics that anthropologists face concerning their research and how sometimes there is not a clear line to draw in the sand, when it comes to what is ethical and what could not be considered ethical. While dealing with human subjects one must be careful not to assume that by taking a photograph and using in a research project or research article that the research is a favor to the subjects and that the subject will be pleased with the work as much as the anthropologist is with the work. As Shown in the Article “State of the Ethics in Visual Anthropology, Thinking he was doing them a favor, Marion e-mailed this image from the 2004 Yankee Classic in Boston, Massachusetts, only to wake up the next morning to learn that his image was on the front page as illustration for the headlines “Assault Claim Divides Dancers”1. The image is of the two dancers dancing a competition, Marion believed that the image would be used in such a way that it would highlight the dancing of the couple, but the image was used to highlight the social dynamics of the couple in a negative light. This is an example of not totally using the ethical code, Marion trying to do something that was to be a good jester did not mean for the image to be used in a negative way, but without consulting with the couple he set the dancers up for more scrutiny. By Marion delivering an image to an unethical source, because of this unfortunate accident and others like it. is the reason that the American Anthropology Association, and the Society of Visual Anthropology have come up with specific codes of ethics to act like a guide line.

The Code of ethics by the American Anthropology Association and the Society of Visual Anthropology is positioned to help Anthropologists, in their research practices, and in the teaching aspects of research. The mission Statement of The AAA Code of ethics is to “advance all aspects of anthropological research and to foster dissemination of anthropological knowledge through publications, teaching, public education, and application. An important part of that mission is to educate AAA members about ethical obligations and challenges involved in the generation, dissemination, and utilization of anthropological knowledge”2. Do to this Statement is why there have been put place ethical boards in order to judge and review the work of others in all aspects of research wither it is in the research article of a cultural anthropologist, or the ethnographic film made by a visual anthropologist.  

Cited sources

1 "State of the Ethics in Visual Anthropology", Sara Perry and Jonathan S. Marion. 2010, 

   American Anthropology Association. 

2 "Code of Ethics of The American Anthropology Association", American AnthropologyAssociation.

    1998