Social and Behavioral Sciences | Open Access Articles

An Ethics For Working Up?: Japanese Corporate Scandals And Rethinking Lessons About Fieldwork, Elise Edwards

Elise M. Edwards

Almost forty years after Laura Nader's initial rallying call for anthropologists to “study up,” research on power holders and elite individuals and institutions still constitutes only a small fraction of ethnographic work. In addition, many of the methodological and ethical issues specific to studying up remain under-examined. Most discussions of methodological and ethical dilemmas in anthropology to date have assumed a power differential that favors the anthropologist. What happens when the power vector points in the other direction? Through the retelling of dilemmas faced when dealing with a very powerful and prominent field subject, I set the stage for a …

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Forum: Storage Wars. Solving The Archaeological Curation Crisis?, Morag Kersel

Morag M. Kersel

Whether sponsored by academic institutions, governments, international agencies, or private landowners, the results of archaeological investigations are the same: the production of knowledge and an accumulation of things. The material manifestations (artifacts and samples) and the accompanying daily notes, digital records, maps, photographs, and plans together comprise a comprehensive record of the past. Once these items have been amassed, they are deposited in dig houses, magazines, museums, repositories, storage containers, and sometimes in personal basements and garages to be held in perpetuity. Across the globe, storage (here implying curation and permanent care) is one of the most pressing issues facing …

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