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Q. Discuss the ethical issues raised by the Human Terrain System and within the context of the Octupus

article by Montgomery.

HUMAN TERRAIN SYSTEM

The Human Terrain System [HTS] places anthropologists as consultants to the US military in settings of

war for the purpose of creating cultural knowledge for use by the US military.

There have been numerous professional ethical issues raised in this regard and include:

1. As military contractors working in settings of war, HTS anthropologists work in situationswhere it will not always be possible for them to distinguish themselves from military personneland identify themselves as anthropologists. This places a significant constraint on their ability tofulfill their ethical responsibility as anthropologists to disclose who they are and what they aredoing. 2. HTS anthropologists are charged with responsibility for negotiating relations among a numberof groups, including both local populations and the U.S. military units that employ them and in

which they are embedded. Consequently, HTS anthropologists may have responsibilities to theirU.S. military units in war zones that conflict with their obligations to the persons they study orconsult, specifically the obligation, stipulated in the AAA Code of Ethics, to do no harm to thosethey study (section III, A, 1).

3. HTS anthropologists work in a war zone under conditions that make it difficult for those theycommunicate with to give informed consent without coercion, or for this consent to be taken atface value or freely refused. As a result, voluntary informed consent (as stipulated by the AAACode of Ethics, section III, A, 4) is compromised.

4. As members of HTS teams, anthropologists provide information and counsel to U.S. militaryfield commanders. This poses a risk that information provided by HTS anthropologists could be

used to make decisions about identifying and selecting specific populations as targets of U.S.military operations either in the short or long term. Any such use of fieldwork-derivedinformation would violate the stipulations in the AAA Code of Ethics that those studied not beharmed (section III A, 1). In addition to these four points about the activities ofanthropologists working in the HTS project itself, the Executive Board has this additionalconcern:

5. Because HTS identifies anthropology and anthropologists with U.S. military operations, thisidentificationgiven the existing range of globally dispersed understandings of U.S. militarismmay create serious difficulties for, including grave risks to the personal safety of, many non-HTSanthropologists and the people they study.

Essentially, based on these above issues, it can be concluded that (i) the HTS createsconditions that are likely to place anthropologists in positions where their work will

violate AAAs code of ethics and (ii) that HTSs use of anthropologists poses a dangerto both anthropologists and the people they study

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IN THE CONTEXT OF THE OCTUPUS ARTICLE BY MONTGOMERY

issues of full disclosure, informed consent, and anonymity are displaced by notions of essentializationand primarily, the ethical responsibility of avoiding harm or wrong to the people they study.

In terms of essentialization, the anthropologists: Maranda spent half their lifetime reducingmyths to mathematical algorithms in order to explain their function. Clearly this is problematic as

in order to reduce anything into an equation it presumes a staticness that culture simply does not

have

However, it is this notion of staticness that leads to the next ethical issue raised in the octopusarticle by Montgomery: Marandas refusal to give to the current day Lau the secrets that their

ancestors entrusted him with and that were important to the Lau culture still albeit it in

potentially differently ways than Maranda wished or the ancestors may have envisioned.

Essentially, he is the link between their past and future and seems to be lacking the ability tohistorically contextualize the culture that he holds so dear and recognize the ways in which time

and outside factors such as missionization may have influenced the culture

In his inability to factor in the fluidity of culture and the ways in which it must be contextualizedcombined with his essentialized and predisposed notions of what Lau culture looked like may

negatively influence the culture

However, in attempting to contextualize the ethical issues raised by the HTS system within thecontext of the Octupus article by Montgomery, it seems that the largest issue is the ways in which

both Maranda and the HTS anthropologists presume that their knowledge and ideals are the best

ones

More particularly, in the case of HTS, notions of saving lives through the program assume thatcultural knowledge will reduce violent conflict.

This presumption relies on the presupposition that resistance is as a result of culturalmiscommunication.

Put differently, it assumes that the opposition cultures that the HTS anthropologists presume tostudy are only participating in the insurgencies because they dont understand what the US

military is trying to do as opposed to being aware of the plans and simply not agreeing with them. This also means that the HTS program operates from the viewpoint that these cultures are

primitive in their understandings and intelligence.

In the case of Maranda, echos of hierarchizing his own understandings above those of the localculture can be heard

Instead of attempting to listen to the Lau islanders indeed even his own assistant who hasideas of how they want to use the knowledge to benefit their culture Marandas presumption that

the only way is the way he was originally led to understand serves as a barrier

Whats worse, is that by taking the stance that he does and refusing to acknowledge the fluidity ofthe Lau culture, Marandas insistence on holding onto the cultural secrets he has been entrusted

with will mean that the ancestor spirits die completely unknown and unheard as opposed toreconstituted and appreciated as their local decendants see fit.