2.6 Ethics of Research

All researchers should adhere to the ethics of their discipline. This is true of anthropology, too, especially since anthropologists almost always work with human subjects. Proper ethical review requires submitting completed project proposals to their university’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) for work with human subjects or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) for work with other species.

Below is a partial list of member organizations  to which anthropologists commonly belong and links to their ethics pages. Note that the American Anthropological Association is one of the primary organizations, often serving as a guide for others to follow.

One of the most important criteria for anthropological research is to enter any study area with cultural relativism and reflexivity. Constant reflexivity helps anthropologists minimize bias in their data, experiences, and results.

A wooden sculpture in a thinking position on the floor.
Reflexivity is an important criteria for doing research in anthropology. Awareness of and efforts to counteract bias in data collection, analysis, and experience are always on an anthropologist’s mind.
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Introduction to Evolution & Human Behavior Copyright © 2022 by Shelly Volsche, PhD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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