THE first-world-war battlefields of Belgium and France are dangerous places where, even today, unexploded shells lurk, making excavation a potentially lethal activity. But as archaeologists pick up their trowels, they must consider more than their personal safety. For the trenches, dugouts and tunnels—many containing human remains and personal belongings—are ethical minefields too. In a paper in this month's Antiquity, Nicholas Saunders, an anthropologist at University College, London, says that archaeologists on these battlefields face a concentration of all the issues that have concerned archaeology in the past ten to 15 years. These ethical concerns fall into three broad areas. Download Stardock Fences Portable Oxygen there.

First, there is the question of how to treat human remains. Over the past few years, archaeologists have often come into conflict with indigenous peoples over the custody and handling of excavated human remains. In Belgium and France the situation is particularly complex because the allied armies included soldiers from a variety of faiths and ethnicities, including Africans, Indians, Australians and Native Americans, all of whose traditions may prefer to treat remains differently. Next is the question of ownership of artefacts. In the case of first-world-war sites, local people armed with metal detectors routinely collect medals and other memorabilia. The sale of such items, says Dr Saunders, has provided an important source of income ever since refugees first returned to the area after the conflict. Archaeologists, though, regard such activities as looting.

Around the world, the general question of who has the first claim on buried items—local people, the descendants of the original owners or archaeologists—is deeply controversial. In short, archaeologists' investigations frequently pit their interests against those of other people, and the concerns of the present against the possible concerns of the future. As ethical considerations come to matter more, there has been a change in the way the public sees archaeologists, and the way archaeologists see themselves. “We went through a period when we thought ‘Hey, we're scientists, we should be the number one priority here',” says William Lipe, an archaeologist at Washington State University in Pullman. “But most of us have now come to see it differently.” Archaeology is now changing dramatically, says Karen Vitelli, an archaeologist at Indiana University. Dr Vitelli also chairs the ethics committee of the Society for American Archaeology ( SAA) and is editor of a forthcoming book on archaeological ethics.

Ethical issues do not exist within a vacuum; rather, they emerge, evolve, and adapt within the socio-cultural context of a particular society. In past decades, the. Closely examine the major areas of ethical theory as well as a broad range of contemporary moral debates using MacKinnon's acclaimed ETHICS: THEORY AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES, Sixth Edition. Recognized for its breadth of coverage, this book provides a superbly balanced introduction that effectively integrates. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN BUSINESS ETHICS, 6E begins from the perspective that business ethics are the products of market mechanisms and social values. By placing this approach in an international context, this edition shows students how ethical theories are applied in today's complex global marketplace.

She was one of the first archaeologists to integrate the study of ethics into archaeological training, and it has now, she says, become a standard part of many degree courses. At the same time, archaeological societies around the world (including the SAA) have adopted codes of ethics to regulate their members. What has brought about this transformation? Skeletons in the closet Ethics and archaeology began to collide relatively recently.