麻豆约拍

Farrah Jarral looks at the complex and controversial relationship between anthropologists and war.

Starting with Ursula Graham-Bower, who lead Naga tribesmen against the Japanese in the Second World War, Farrah examines how anthropologists have been involved with armed conflict. She shows how US government funding allowed anthropology to expand rapidly during the Cold War, with controversial results. And she tells the story of the Human Terrain System: a programme embedding anthropologists and other social scientists with US Army combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan. To its critics, it flouted ethics rules; while its creator argues that it saved many lives.

Producer: Giles Edwards.