ANTHROPOLOGY AT WAR. HISTORY AND PRESENT TIME OF INVOLVEMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN MILITARY CONFLICTS

Abstract

The US Army officially decided to mobilize anthropologists for the project of the Human Terrain System for counterinsurgency war. Since 2007 the US Department of Defense have been employing social scientists in combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. This decision provoked widespread criticism of the project in the anthropological community. The intense discussion about turning anthropology into a military tool also provokes wider public debate concerning the ethics and current role of anthropology. Various examples taken from the history of anthropology show that more than half of American anthropologists were using their professional skills to advance the war effort during World War II.In this paper the author refers to the discussion connected with the engagement of anthropologists in recent and past wars. He provides examples of such involvement relevant to World War I and II as well as to the time of the Cold War. He shows the ways in which anthropologists were used in military and intelligence operations. The author of the article refers to the famous Franz Boas’s statement from 1919 as the starting point for all the further discussions related to the ethical questions of the engagement of anthropologists in wars. The author considers how the engagement in those wars changed anthropology itself and its Code of Ethics. He points out the ethical implications of such engagement, especially for field relations. Keeping those historical examples of social scientists’ war involvement in mind, the author claims that any application of anthropology in war activities can pose danger to anthropologists and the whole dis-cipline as well.