Anthropology of Ethics and Moralities
Anthropology of moralities and ethics has never been a core discipline of anthropology. However, American cultural anthropology and British functionalist anthropology have shown great interest for moral values and moralities in the first half of the twentieth century. In the past decades, anthropology of ethics has emerged in the context of transdisciplinary concerns for freedom, agency, subjectivity, reflexivity, and moral traditions. But what is at stake in ethics and moralities? Building on multiple definitions and classical epistemological assumptions in anthropology of moralities, this paper addresses important issues related to the definition of both an anthropology of moralities and an anthropology of ethics, considered, not as independent research fields, but as complementary perspectives on moral foundations of social practices and individual choices.