Practice question · Multiple choice
Why did the American Anthropological Association condemn the Human Terrain System?
Hints
- Ask what can happen to an informant whose words reach a combat unit.
- The first obligation is to the people studied.
Show the answer
A. Ethnography serving targeting cannot honour do-no-harm
Why
When field notes can guide military operations, informants become potential targets, irreconcilable with the first ethical obligation. The 2007 controversy drew the discipline’s brightest red line: ethnography is not intelligence.
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More questions on Applied Anthropology Today
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