We Must Fight the Militarization of Anthropology

Autor/in	Gonzalez, Roberto J.
Titel	We Must Fight the Militarization of Anthropology
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, 53 (2007) 22 PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-5982
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Anthropology; National Security; Cultural Awareness; Social Science Research + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Anthropologie; National territory; Security; Staatsgebiet; Sicherheit; Cultural identity; Kulturelle Identität; Social scientific research; Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung
Abstract	When students take introductory courses in cultural anthropology, they learn the techniques necessary for understanding daily life in peasant villages or among bands of hunter-gatherers. Professors teach them about the importance of building rapport with informants, the insights gained from cultural immersion, and the benefits of linguistic fluency. Students rarely learn that today a small but growing number of Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Department, and State Department officials and contractors are promoting militarized versions of the same techniques as key elements of the "war on terror." Military and intelligence agents seem to be particularly interested in applying academic knowledge to interrogation and counterinsurgency efforts in the Middle East and Central Asia, and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Recent events have dramatically demonstrated that anthropological and other scholarly information is a potentially valuable intelligence tool. History shows that such information can easily be misused when put into the wrong hands. Kanhong Lin, a graduate student at American University, along with this author, crafted a resolution opposing torture and the use of anthropological knowledge as an element of torture and brought to the annual meeting of the anthropology association, where it was unanimously adopted. Although academic resolutions are not likely to transform U.S. government policies, they do articulate a set of values and ethical concerns shared by many scholars. Those who have adopted them hope that the recent resolutions will extend and amplify dialogue among anthropologists--and others--around issues of torture, the "war on terror," and the potential abuse of social-science knowledge. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10