Ethnography in the Forest: An Analysis of Ethics in the Morals of Anthropology

In arguing for a differentiation of ethics from morals as well as between ethics and morals in the domains of ethnography and anthropology, an analysis of ethical issues described by Levi-Strauss in Tristes Tropiques (1992) enables a critical commentary on, first, the thematization of ethics in the historiography of anthropology and, second, a recent analysis by Peter Pels of the double focus, or dual orientation, of ethics in relation to both sponsors and subjects of study. This metaethical analysis tracks differences in the reasoning, values, problematizations, and focus of ethics and morals in the distinct domains of ethnographic fieldwork, ethnographic representation, the general field of anthropology, and the historiography of anthropology.