Anthropology, Ethical Dissonance, and the Construction of the Object

Sylvie Fainzang (1)

1 CERMES3 - UMR 8211 / U988 / UM 7 - CERMES3 - Centre de recherche Médecine, sciences, santé, santé mentale, société

In this article, I discuss certain questions relating to the ethical difficulties faced by anthropologists when dealing with two different social groups and when one group holds a position of dominance over the other. In the first example, I draw on my work on doctor-patient relationships in France; in the second, on a study on reproduction in immigrant African families from Mali and Senegal, living in polygynous households in France. I use these examples to explore questions of positionality, beneficence, and potential harm. I show the choices I made in order to construct an epistemologically ethical object.

Mots clés: doctor-patient relationship; ethical dissonance; polygyny; power relationship; stigmatization

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Sylvie Fainzang. Anthropology, Ethical Dissonance, and the Construction of the Object. Medical Anthropology, 2015, 34, pp.11 - 23. ⟨10.1080/01459740.2014.945080⟩. ⟨hal-03690539⟩