Ecological Health and the Embodiment of Nature: Environmentalism, Social Class and Nature Cure in Modern India

生态健康与自然的体现：现代印度的环保主义、社会阶级和自然疗法

• 批准号: 1125100
• 负责人: Joseph Alter
• 金额: $ 12.09万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-15 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1125100&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ecological; Health; Embodiment; Nature; Environmentalism

Dr. Joseph S. Alter (University of Pittsburg) will conduct research on an alternative medical system in India currently gaining in popularity. The project is designed to understand the correlation between ecology and alternative medicine as an embodied practice, and to analyze the relationship among class status, health and environmentalism in a context of significant social difference and economic disparity. As a popular, broad based form of alternative medicine, Nature Cure involves the therapeutic embodiment of earth, air, water, sunlight and raw foods, thus linking individual biology to the ecology of nature in various ways. To understand the social, political and economic structure of these links, field research will be conducted over thirteen months at three Nature Cure facilities, a training college and two regional libraries in India, where Nature Cure is an authorized, state funded, popular form of alternative treatment. Research will involve participant observation at each treatment facility as well as participant observation in group health regimens established by client/patients in their respective communities. Interviews will be conducted with resident client/patients before and after scheduled therapy sessions. Data will be analyzed by coding interviews for content analysis and comparing the answers given by patients whose economic and occupational status, and specific disease diagnosis, reflects significant differences within the range of "middle-class" distinctions. Data analysis will focus on the question of how "environmentalism" as articulated and practiced in the therapy, is embodied and in what ways embodied environmentalism is understood and experienced differently by different sectors of the population.The significance of the research lies in two areas: examining the cognitive and physical impact of the therapy and determining if its affects are differentially received and experienced by members of different classes and therapeutic settings. The research will be of great interest to those involved with identifying alternative therapies.

Joseph S. Alter 博士（匹兹堡大学）将对印度目前流行的替代医疗系统进行研究。 该项目旨在了解生态学和替代医学作为具体实践之间的相关性，并分析在显着社会差异和经济差距的背景下阶级地位、健康和环保主义之间的关系。 作为一种流行的、基础广泛的替代医学形式，自然疗法涉及地球、空气、水、阳光和生食的治疗体现，从而以各种方式将个体生物学与自然生态联系起来。 为了了解这些联系的社会、政治和经济结构，将在印度的三个 Nature Cure 设施、一所培训学院和两个地区图书馆进行为期 13 个月的实地研究，Nature Cure 是印度授权的、国家资助的、流行的替代治疗形式。研究将涉及每个治疗机构的参与观察以及客户/患者在各自社区制定的团体健康方案的参与观察。 在预定的治疗课程之前和之后，我们将与常驻客户/患者进行面谈。 数据将通过编码访谈进行内容分析，并比较经济和职业状况以及具体疾病诊断反映“中产阶级”区别范围内显着差异的患者给出的答案。 数据分析将重点关注治疗中如何阐述和实践“环保主义”的问题，以及不同人群对环保主义的理解和体验有何不同的方式。这项研究的意义在于两个领域：检查治疗的认知和身体影响，并确定不同阶层和治疗环境的成员是否有差异地接受和体验其影响。 这项研究将引起那些参与寻找替代疗法的人们的极大兴趣。