Linguistic Ethnography: Gwich'in Caribou Anatomy and Cultural Ecology [ISO 639 gwi]

语言民族志：Gwichin 驯鹿解剖学和文化生态学 [ISO 639 gwi]

• 批准号: 1162600
• 负责人: Craig Mishler
• 金额: $ 18.71万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-03-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1162600&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Linguistic; Ethnography; Gwich; Caribou; Anatomy

Vadzaih (Rangifer Tarandus) is a staple of Gwich'in subsistence and spirituality. Over the millenia, the Gwich'in have developed a detailed knowledge of caribou body parts: not only sundry names and uses for these parts but an encyclopedia of traditional stories, songs, games, family names, foodways, and ceremonies associated with them. The project's research objective is to discover what the Gwich'in Athabaskan people, as a small-scale subarctic society, can teach the nation through their language and world view about living in harmony with the land and with the wild game animals they share it with. To realize this goal the researchers will interview active hunters and elders in their home communities of Arctic Village, Venetie, and Fort Yukon in northeast Alaska, and Old Crow, Tsiigehtchic, and Fort McPherson in northwest Canada.A fundamental question for the research is not only what do the Gwich'in know about caribou anatomy, but how do they see caribou and what do they say and believe about caribou that defines themselves, their dietary and nutritional needs, and their subsistence way of life? Language is the key. Gwich'in, an endangered language with four living dialects, is a member of the Na-Dene language family, and the fieldwork plan includes speakers of all four of those dialects. An important part of the plan is to train young speakers and language learners in basic transcription and translation skills.Recording the traditional ethnoscientific knowledge Gwich'in elders have about caribou in their corpus of oral narratives and in their lexicon has farreaching implications for zooarchaeology, for applied linguistics, and for folklore and cultural anthropology. It is an empirical approach which essentially weds natural science with the humanities, osteology with verbal art.

Vadzaih（Rangifer Tarandus）是Gwich'在生存和灵性方面的主食。几千年来，Gwich'in人对驯鹿的身体部位有了详细的了解：不仅记录了这些部位的名称和用途，而且还记录了与之相关的传统故事、歌曲、游戏、姓氏、饮食方式和仪式。该项目的研究目标是发现Gwich'in Athabaskan人作为一个小规模的亚北极社会，可以通过他们的语言和世界观向全国传授如何与土地和与他们共享的野生动物和谐相处。为了实现这一目标，研究人员将在阿拉斯加东北部的北极村、威尼蒂和育空地区堡，以及加拿大西北部的老乌鸦、齐盖奇克和麦克弗森堡的家乡社区采访活跃的猎人和老年人。研究的一个基本问题不仅是格威奇人对驯鹿的解剖学了解多少，而且是他们如何看待驯鹿，以及他们对驯鹿的看法和信仰是什么，这些驯鹿定义了他们自己，他们的饮食和营养需要，以及他们的生存方式？语言是关键。Gwich'in是一种濒危语言，有四种方言，是Na-Dene语系的一员，实地考察计划包括所有四种方言的使用者。 该计划的一个重要组成部分是培训年轻的讲者和语言学习者掌握基本的转录和翻译技能。将古威奇长者对驯鹿的传统民族科学知识记录在他们的口述语料库和词汇中，对动物考古学、应用语言学、民俗学和文化人类学都有深远的影响。它是一种经验主义的方法，本质上是将自然科学与人文科学、骨学与语言艺术结合在一起。