Chapitre 6. Le respect de l’autonomie et de la confidentialité, entre « normes éthiques » et « moralités locales »

Abstract

This article considers the difficulty of applying ethical norms as part of an anthropological research on moralities and ethics of healing practices in St. Lucia (Caribbean). This reflection is based on the moral evaluations related to obeah, locally conceived as a set of magical, religious and witchcraft practices that helps to manage disease and misfortune. Through the analysis of local conceptions surrounding the ethical notions of autonomy and confidentiality, I call attention to potential nuisance caused by the application of principles of beneficence and respect for the individual. Indeed, local idioms that are moral discretion and self-sufficiency, which can respectively refer to the concepts of autonomy and confidentiality, are, paradoxically, both valued and likely to be associated with dubious morality. I will demonstrate that the fact of applying these principles in all ethnographic relationship may harm interlocutors by increasing, in the case of St. Lucia, the risk of witchcraft accusations and derogatory moral attributions. The anthropological field experience presented here questions the principles of beneficence and respect for the individual as defined in the field of research ethics; it also imposes the need to think about their adaptation to suit local representations. This leads to recommend a pragmatic and emerging ethics of anthropological research/practice.