The Anthropology of Morality

Professional ethics in anthropology reflects general moral principles regarding what one should not do and what one should do. However, in practice the emphasis is mostly on the negative; trying to avoid causing harm, and most of all to research subjects. Often concern with ethics within anthropology is more reactive than proactive. Also, it tends to be more a matter of defensive maneuvering to save face in public for the individuals and organizations involved, rather than grappling with issues let alone resolving them constructively and conclusively. Ethical concerns intensify during periods when scandals and/or controversies erupt, especially if they reach the general public to embarrass the profession. In the history of anthropology during the twentieth century into the present, many of the ethical controversies erupted about research associated with war, especially secret and/or clandestine activities. Politics is usually involved too, aggravating the difficulty and heat. However, there are also numerous and diverse cases beyond war because ethical challenges, dilemmas, and choices are inevitable. Yet when all is said and done, the ethical conduct of an anthropologist ultimately remains mostly a matter of personal morality, conscience, and integrity as well as adherence to ethical codes. Whole courses on professional ethics are rarely offered in departments of anthropology at universities and colleges for undergraduate or even for graduate majors as an elective, let alone requirement. Yet an abundance of literature and ethics codes are readily available for individuals to read, contemplate, discuss, and debate. Since the 1990s, and especially during the 2000s, there has been a marked increase in attention to professional ethics in anthropology. Much of this is one of the positive results of the controversy ignited by investigative journalist Patrick Tierney’s book Darkness in El Dorado, although there were also many negative consequences. Subsequently, the Human Terrain System, wherein anthropologists were embedded with the US military during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ignited further controversy. This article focuses on professional ethics in cultural anthropology in the United States because of limited space. The emphasis is on books, rather than on journal articles, because the accumulating literature is enormous and books contain bibliographies for further research. Also, for journal articles and other sources, search Abstracts in Anthropology, Academic Search Complete, Annual Review of Anthropology, Anthropology Index Online, AnthroSource, Google Scholar, JSTOR, and ProQuest.

This thesis explores the ethics of end of life decision making by examining the experiences of family members who were involved with the care of a loved one with terminal cancer. There are two main objectives to this research. The first is to understand the nature of the encounters between clinical care and families, how the dying trajectory affects decision making and how family dynamics impact end of life care. The second objective is to understand the process of moral reasoning and to determine whether the nature of ethical engagement differs for end of life decision making. Each narrative case study provides a sequence of events from diagnosis to the end of the patient's life. It also includes both patient's and families' engagement with ethical problems which were encountered during the course of the trajectory, an analysis of their moral reasoning and what both patient and families considered to be a good death. Over thirty hours of interviews were conducted with ten participants. Narrative analysis is used to draw on pertinent contextual information along with an assessment of moral reasoning. This is done in two ways. First, it refers to the general rules of moral reasoning (Cohen, 2014) and applies the theories of three moral worlds (Zigon, 2007). Second, through a structural analysis of the narrative, other moral positions and indicators are revealed. Using a phenomenological approach to the data, important factors which proved to have a considerable impact on engagement with ethics included background and intention, the nature of the subject's life-world, and inter-subjectivity. In addition, both temporality and the emotions were given considerable focus to determine the way in which these elements also shaped end of life decision making. This research responded to the need for more qualitative data for end of life decisions and, by combining both medical and moral anthropology, presents an innovative approach toward understanding both decision making and morality. It reveals that both life-worlds of patients and families are altered by a terminal diagnosis consequently changing the embodied moral worlds of the decision makers. The social and perceptual transformations, the sense of liminality and the power of emotions over their embodied moral worlds changed the nature of their engagement with ethics. Indeed, background experience, inter-subjectivity and emotions sometimes had a greater influence on moral choice than outside powerful social and cultural influences which made up their moral assemblage. My concluding finding is that moral reasoning, when it comes to end of life decision making, should be understood as an exceptional space which alters the parameters of our usual engagement with ethics. The findings presented in this thesis have practical implications for medical professionals who engage with families and also for social workers and other counselors who assist families involved with end of life care. It also has implications for the study of moral anthropology by showing how death and the accompanying emotions shape our moral perspectives, decisions and worlds.

Topicality. The global and local crises over the past two decades have redefined the role of social protection and social security systems as automatic social and economic stabilizers. Despite the level of economic development of the country, the global experience indicates that countries with a well-defined social strategy are less difficult and suffer less time to stabilize the country. Effective state social policy is relevant in times of economic crisis and is necessary to alleviate internal market disfunction. It is worth to admit that annually from the state budget of Ukraine almost 70% of social expenditures are redistributed to programs for improving the standard of living of the needy. However, despite the efforts of government officials, the level of poverty is increasing annually, and the problem is the mass outflow of workforce abroad. The current situation in the field of social security and its level of financing is unsatisfactory, since it does not contribute to the overall improvement of the standard and quality of life of the population, and therefore requires regulation with the introduction of fundamental changes in social budgeting. Aim and tasks The purpose of the study was to determine the argumentation based on the study of the world experience of national priorities of social policy modification and substantiation of innovative design of social transfer programs in the conditions of spreading threats of globalization challenges and strengthening of the turbulence of the macroeconomic environment. Research results. As a result of studying foreign experience, the authors of the article found that the social policy of a successful country is intended to fulfil a regulative and stimulating role in ensuring the development of the economy and creating conditions for the effective functioning of the social protection system, social security and social services, the activity of which should be not only an "act of charity", but a way to increase the economic activity of the working classes and support other segments of the population to ensure a decent life for the whole community. However, over the years of independence, Ukraine's social policy has never been shaped as a coherent, integrated strategy. It is in fact replaced by the accumulation of various types of poorly justified and not supported by the possibilities of budget financing of payments, benefits, subsidies, etc. The establishment and functioning of the national social security system is undoubtedly important, but the objective need to formulate a social transfer policy in order to find ways to optimize the social sphere by enhancing the effectiveness of the social transfer tool that must be taken into account. Conclusions. The research made it possible to substantiate the position of the authors, which is that the permanent nature of the socio-economic crisis in Ukraine forces to work on the development of anti-crisis measures in the social sphere. This requires constant updating of the tools of the social protection system, social security and social services as automatic state social stabilizers and economic incentives to activate life and well-being of the population. In times of crisis and post-crisis periods, social policies should aim to compensate for the loss of economic benefits not only for the population in need, but also for the proportion of the population in need because of the crisis. Therefore, the state, through social programs, must “insure” a decent standard of living for the entire population of the country, especially in times of crisis.

Research has shown that performing moral or immoral actions in video games can affect the players’ moral self-worth and evoke moral emotions. People may compensate for their immoral behaviors by performing more moral actions, but sometimes performing moral actions can also license them to perform immoral behaviors later. The current study examines whether players engage in moral licensing or moral cleansing behaviors within and after video game moral scenarios. Study 1 is an exploratory study that examined a sequence of moral dilemmas in the game Papers, Please, and found that players alternated between choosing the moral choices and the accurate choices, indicating signs of moral balancing when faced with moral choices that conflict with their in-game goals. Study 2 utilized a 3 (moral vs. immoral vs. control) × 2 (congruent charity vs. incongruent charity) experiment using a moral event in the game Life is Strange to examine the moderating effects of issue congruency on moral balancing. Study 3 used three different games to replicate Study 2. The findings showed that players who performed moral actions in the game also devoted more efforts to a charity on a congruent issue. However, participants who performed a moral behavior in the game committed significantly less effort to a charity on an incongruent issue, indicating a moral licensing effect. Study 2 found that performing immoral actions in a game can motivate players to devote more efforts to a subsequent charity, regardless of issue congruity, but this moral cleansing effect was not observed in Study 3.

This chapter investigates pandemic-related behaviors of citizens by drawing on well-studied concepts from moral and social psychology: moral panic, grandstanding, disengagement, and outrage. It presents real-world examples as a way to tackle relevant questions and contemplate solutions. Specifically, the study discusses: (a) how the spread of the virus coincided with waves of moral panic around the world; (b) how the lack of scientific consensus and distrust in public authorities resulted in moral grandstanding and disengagement in some citizens and refusal to comply with health measures; and (c) how moral outrage was born as a reaction aimed toward those who refuse by those who chose to adhere with the measures. Crucially, the chapter focuses on some common themes and underlying causes, including the interplay between external (societal) events and internal (group) processes, as well as the inflammatory content, unchecked reactions, and polarized stances that were freely disseminated on and amplified by the Internet. The summary conclusions serve to inform future research on the morality of masses in times of massive crises.

Based on the moral relativism theory, the current study proposes that individuals with indirect multicultural experiences may exhibit a “moral neutrality pattern” in complete moral judgments, that is, they may perceive others’ immoral actions as less immoral and moral actions as less moral. In Study 1, using publicly available CGSS data and our large-scale survey, we found positive correlations between multicultural experiences and a tendency to express less blame for immoral behavior, and less praise for moral behavior. In Study 2, the behavioral results indicated that individuals with high multicultural experiences (HM) expressed less praise than those with low multicultural experiences (LM) for “slightly moral condition”. The ERP time-domain results suggested that the HM group tended to exhibit lower LPP differential wave amplitudes than the LM group across different moral conditions (extremely immoral, slightly immoral, slightly moral, and extremely moral minus neutral moral conditions, respectively). Notably, the difference in LPP differential wave amplitude between the HM and LM groups was more pronounced for “slightly moral condition”, starting from 500-700ms and continuing to 900-1100ms. Overall, this study provides preliminary behavioral and neural evidence for the moral neutrality pattern of individuals with multicultural experiences. This echoes the global concerns for ethics in today’s globalization and enriches our understanding of the how individuals with indirect multicultural experiences form complete moral judgments.

Philosophy Problems Become Real During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This chapter addresses the general character of the ‘ethical turn’ in anthropology and the variety of intellectual styles, reflected in the chapters in this volume, which it has come to include. That variety is such that only two propositions may be said to be generally shared: that the ethical dimension of human social life is non-trivial, and that the understanding of ‘morality’ that is dominant in contemporary Western societies is inadequate for describing and understanding it. In upholding the first of these positions, the anthropology of ethics has departed from those trends in recent anthropology characterized by Sherry Ortner as ‘dark anthropology’. In pursuit of the second, it has attempted to free itself from the imaginative straitjacket of what the philosopher Bernard Williams called the ‘Morality System’, so that it may reckon with the full range of forms of ethical thought, feeling, and practice in the ethnographic record. The chapter also gives a brief overview of the thematic parts of the volume, and the chapters.

Narratives about positive and negative life events have been shown to be associated with identity development. The present study extends this line of research by investigating how individuals’ autobiographical memories about their past immoral and moral actions relate to moral identity development. The authors interviewed 131 participants from 3 age periods (adolescence, emerging adulthood, adulthood) about past events in which they did something right or wrong and felt either good or bad about it. The authors assessed moral identity development by the self-centrality of moral values and by internal moral motivation. Results demonstrated that older participants and participants with higher internal moral motivation drew stronger connections between their current self and past moral and immoral actions. Moreover, individuals with higher internal moral motivation more often acknowledged the conflicting nature of these events. Taken together, the findings indicate that the way individuals remember their own (im)moral past is associated with moral identity development.

This essay suggests affinities between contemporary changes in classic research practices of anthropological ethnography and forms of research built into projects of conceptual, performance and installation art. The scene of fieldwork encounter is transformed by the challenges of new objects and conditions of research in anthropology. These challenges are thought through the description of an exemplary conceptual art project produced at the Tate Modern Museum, while allowing for the differences between the aims and ethics of anthropology and those of art.

The anthropology of ethics has become an important and fast-growing field in recent years. This book argues that it represents not just a new subfield within anthropology but a conceptual renewal of the discipline as a whole, enabling it to take account of a major dimension of human conduct which social theory has so far failed adequately to address. An ideal introduction for students and researchers in anthropology and related human sciences. • Shows how ethical concepts such as virtue, character, freedom and responsibility may be incorporated into anthropological analysis • Surveys the history of anthropology's engagement with morality • Examines the relevance for anthropology of two major philosophical approaches to moral life

The existence of Civic Education(PKn) Course in the Higher Education curriculum is a compulsory subject that must be taken and passed by every student, so it is known as the General Compulsory Course (MKWU). Moreover, due to its mission on developing students' personalities, Civic Education is also known as the Personality Development Course (MKPK). However, the problem that still arises is the attitude and behavior of some students who violate moral values and character, such as cheating during exams, plagiarizing other people's work in doing assignments, drinking alcohol, doing immoral actions or promiscuity, brawling among students or groups of students, skipping lectures beyond the tolerance. In addition, another problem commonly faced is the non-optimal learning process for Civic Education which is known from the lack of students' involvement in the learning process. The implementation of the Citizen Project Model as an effort to solve problems in Civic Education learning could make students understand and behave in accordance with moral values and character as citizens. Furthermore, this model could also make students active, creative, collaborative, disciplined, and build good relations with the community and government officials. This study aims to examine the Project Citizen model in building students' moral values and character at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto (UMP). This research was carried out with a qualitative approach using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) design. The students were involved in each stage of Project Citizen in three participatory action cycles. The data collection technique used interviews, observations, video recordings, and documents. The data analysis used theme analysis. The study results prove that the stages of the project citizen model can build UMP students' moral values and character. UMP students' moral values and character are described in 8 themes, including rationality, justice, honesty, kindness, prosocial behavior/doing good to others, the character of citizens, braveness, and motivation to be an open and independent person

The article is considered the concept of morality, moral consciousness, pedagogical condition. It is analyzed how pedagogical and psychological sciences have interpreted these concepts during historical development. The views of domestic and foreign scientists on the concepts of morality, moral consciousness, moral deeds are revealed. The essence of the moral consciousness of the individual and the basis of its formation are substantiated. It is proved that morality cannot exist outside consciousness. It is guided by a system of norms and rules that have developed in society and can change, as well as eternal human values. Today, at a time when humanity has been able to create maximum comfort, when the machine works instead of man, when information technology allows you to communicate, overcoming distance and time in seconds, you can hear the word "morality", "moral behavior", "moral or immoral act". ». The media is full of news, where people's actions lead to the destruction of (physical or moral) life. And teachers and psychologists are constantly talking about the moral consciousness of their students. It all seems like a paradox. During its historical development, humanity has moved from the primitive communal system to world market relations. The development of science and technology has reached its apogee. But this has not solved global and local problems: natural disasters, epidemics, pandemics, incurable diseases, lack of food and drinking water. The individual is daily confronted with the problem of the choices he makes, guided by his moral consciousness.

Employees frequently encounter situations at work that present moral or ethical dilemmas. Consequently, they may engage in immoral actions, witness moral violations, or fail to intervene when their coworkers behave immorally. Repeated exposure to such moral challenges can lead to moral injury--the damage to one's moral code and self-image resulting from witnessing, failing to prevent, or participating in what is perceived as an immoral act. Despite the potential for moral injury in workplace contexts, research has yet to adequately explore or measure this phenomenon. This dissertation addresses this gap by developing and validating the Moral Injury at Work Scale (MIWS). Across six studies, I confirm a three-factor model of moral injury, showing that the MIWS correlates meaningfully with theoretically relevant constructs (i.e., existing moral injury scales, guilt, shame, moral compass) and remains distinct from unrelated constructs (i.e., justice perceptions, experienced incivility, PTSD, depression, anxiety). The MIWS predicted high burnout and uniquely predicted positive outcomes such as job satisfaction and engagement. The MIWS did not provide incremental validity compared to existing moral injury scales. My results provide preliminary support for the MIWS, contribute to the growing nomological network of moral injury, and provide meaningful areas for future research. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.

: (Revisiting Story of Self-Invented Moral Values: Rothbard vs. Armed Jew)