Dissertation Research: Native Perceptions of Plant Efficacy Among Indigenous Cultures of Peru

论文研究：秘鲁本土文化中植物功效的本土认知

• 批准号: 9527875
• 负责人: Brent Berlin
• 金额: $ 0.78万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-05-01 至 1997-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9527875&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Native; Perceptions; Plant

This award to the University of California-Berkeley funds the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist in the Peruvian Amazon rain forest. The problem is to understand how native Americans identify medicinal plants in the forest. The student will assess native perceptions of specific cues of taste, smell, or feel (bitterness, sweetness, astringency, aromatic smell, prickly texture, etc. ) which are thought to indicate therapeutic efficacy. A `taste and smell` experiment will be conducted whereby Indian informants are asked to describe items unfamiliar to the native palate, to provide an objective, comparative basis for defining the indigenous vocabulary of taste and smell. The student will also study how native perceptions of medicinal efficacy relate to native theories of disease causation, and how these correspond to Western pharmacological and medical knowledge. The methods include an ethnomedical health census, structured and semi-structured interviews, and the collection and analysis of botanical specimens. The native models of two Amerindian groups will be compared, to assess the degree of variability across unrelated cultural groups sharing a similar environment. This research is important because it will add to our expertise about this important region of the world and will advance our knowledge of how native peoples select and use medicinal plants. The study of medicinal plants used by indigenous peoples is especially important because it may reveal new cures for diseases, while at the same time promoting cultural and ecological conservation in indigenous areas.

这一奖项授予加州大学伯克利分校，用于资助秘鲁亚马逊热带雨林一位文化人类学家的论文研究。问题是要了解美洲原住民如何识别森林中的药用植物。学生将评估本地人对味道、气味或感觉(苦味、甜味、涩味、芳香气味、带刺的质地等)的本能感知。它们被认为表明了治疗效果。印度将进行一项名为“味觉与气味”的实验，要求印度调查者描述当地人不熟悉的食物，为定义本地人的味觉和嗅觉词汇提供一个客观、比较的基础。学生还将学习当地对药效的看法如何与当地的疾病因果关系理论相关联，以及这些如何与西方药理学和医学知识相对应。这些方法包括民族医学健康普查、结构化和半结构化访谈以及植物标本的收集和分析。将对两个美洲印第安人群体的本土模式进行比较，以评估共享相似环境的无关文化群体的差异程度。这项研究很重要，因为它将增加我们对世界这一重要地区的专业知识，并将促进我们对土著人民如何选择和使用药用植物的了解。研究土著人民使用的药用植物特别重要，因为它可以揭示治疗疾病的新方法，同时促进土著地区的文化和生态保护。