Abstract
Myron Glazer (The Threat of the Stranger, Hastings Center Report, October 1980, pp. 25-31) makes a point of the vulnerability of both fieldworkers and hosts, and seems to believe that some form of reciprocal giving will eliminate their fears of being harmed. But what if the real ethical problem in fieldwork is not the fear of harm-or even harm itself-but the fact that research can wrong those studied? Unlike the injuries of experimental research, which are likely to occur as a result of the manipulation of subjects by experimenters, the most serious harms of fieldwork come from the manipulation of data, not people, and occur at a later date, when research findings are disseminated. William F. May and Alasdair MacIntyre have pointed out, however, that people can be wronged without being harmed: they can be treated solely as means to researchers' ends. Among the wrongs associated with fieldwork are deception, manipulation, and the unveiling of secrets.
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