Practice question · Multiple choice
The Human Terrain System paid anthropologists to advise the military in Afghanistan. Which professional principle did the AAA judge it to violate?
Hints
- Ask what consent means when the researcher arrives with soldiers.
- The core obligation is to the people studied. What could this knowledge be used for?
Show the answer
C. Informed consent and do-no-harm to informants
Why
Consent requires a real ability to refuse and the setting removed it, while the research product could be turned against the informants, the two obligations fail together. The dispute is genuinely hard, since the programme's defenders argued better cultural knowledge would reduce casualties.
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More questions on Applied Anthropology Today
- If a project is clearly beneficial, an applied anthropologist may skip informed consent to save time.
- Why did the American Anthropological Association condemn the Human Terrain System?
- Sort each project decision: ethical practice or red flag?
- Which are documented failure modes of development projects that skipped ethnography?
- Order the steps of a live informed-consent process.
- Order the phases of a well-run applied-anthropology project.