Sharon P. answered • 05/04/20
PhD. in Anthropology, 18 years’ experience Educator, Patient
I assume we are discussing cultures. I will only address the ethical issues for politics, and Anthropology is not mutually aligned. Cultural constructs are ways/mechanisms used by a culture to identify and define something, such as gender, outside of the biological distinctions. The idea that gender characteristics are not inborn but rather constructed within each culture. All cultures historically have recognized two sexes: male and female; and two genders: masculine and feminine (Peniston lecture 2014). These two constructs provide a basis for the division of labor and social roles with a culture when an Anthropologist asks a member of a specific culture to define or describe gender, what is often described is that cultural nuance-construct.
Whereas the essentialist approach is the historical, demographic, and economic conditions that are used to describe a culture. Such as using prescribed terminology to discuss what is being observed in a cultural group. For example, when describing all members of the culture as low status. What is the comparison here? Probably to Western-European demographics.
The ethical implications are straightforward. A member or members of culture describe, define, or comment on what has been observed (Anthropologist)—juxtaposed the observer using their cultural constructs (definitions) to explain what has been observed. The problem usually is misinformation, improper identification, and subjective analysis. Hence, the political fall-out I can be monumental.
