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16.2: Activity 1 - Ethics in Archaeology- Create Your Own Ethics Statement

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    Gillian Wong, University of Tübingen

    1. To complete this activity, research university and college anthropology and archaeology departments, museums with archaeology departments, and heritage and cultural resource management firms online (do not use any institution with which you are affiliated) and search the sites for their ethics statements.
    2. Choose one institution that does not have an ethics statement on its website and record one or two of the institution’s primary research interests or projects. In the case of cultural resource management firms, record the types of projects they undertake, such as surveying and excavating for private mining projects.
    3. Review the online ethics statement of an anthropology or archaeology society. The Society for American Archaeology (https://www.saa.org) and the European Association of Archaeologists (www.e-a-a.org) are large, continent-wide societies that provide ethics statements, but there are many smaller associations worldwide that can be used for this activity.
    4. Using this chapter and the ethics statement you obtained from an anthropology or archaeology society site, compose an ethics statement for the institution you chose. This ethics statement should:

      a. include at least FIVE key points.

      b. specifically relate to the research and/or projects conducted by the institution (e.g., if the institution conducts excavations in the United States, your ethics statement must address native heritage issues).

      c. include a connection to an ethics statement from an archaeological association that is relevant to the institution’s interests (e.g., an ethics statement for an institution focused on underwater archaeology should reference the Nautical Archaeology Society’s statement of ethics). Describe how this statement relates to this organization and its goals.

    This page titled 16.2: Activity 1 - Ethics in Archaeology- Create Your Own Ethics Statement is shared under a CC BY-NC license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Amanda Wolcott Paskey and AnnMarie Beasley Cisneros (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .