ABSTRACT
In this chapter I present a history of anthropology’s research ethics, situating them as part of a broader political history of changing notions of scholarly values and academic professionalism. If disciplines have shifting intellectual and methodological concerns, they also have historically evolving understandings of professional values. Recent commentaries have argued that the language of ethics is proliferating, and is inexorably linked to the new ‘audit culture’ shaping professional life (Strathern 2000). I want to examine this claim about the rise of ‘ethics-speak’ through a consideration of the specific historical and political contexts in which British and American codes have been written. I am intrigued by the ways in which commentators alternately either conflate or isolate the ethical and political realms of social scientific practice, both views over-simplifying the complex relationship between the realms.
