A Comparative Study of the Medical Ethnobotany of the Chukchi and Naukan Yupik of Siberia and the Central Alaskan Yup'ik

该奖项支持对东西伯利亚楚科奇人和诺坎尤皮克人以及阿拉斯加中部阿拉斯加尤皮克人的民族医学知识和语言进行比较的研究。基础研究项目是检验人类学关于文化和语言关系的基本认识论，并试图理解语言和社会变化条件下的语言和文化的关系。研究人员将通过检验两个说相似语言、有着深厚历史根源的社会(诺坎尤皮克和中阿拉斯加尤皮克)的医学信仰是否更相似，或者两个说无关语言但分享较新俄罗斯主导文化影响的社会(诺坎和楚科奇)来检验这一观点。比较将集中在关于植物对人体影响的信念上，包括被认为具有药用、营养和有毒特性的物种。这项研究将基于标准的人类学方法，包括在每个地区就影响健康的植物的使用和健康状况的解释性模型进行半结构化访谈，以及实地收集相关植物物种。这位研究人员已经与Yupik社区建立了牢固的关系，并将通过他在阿拉斯加大学Kuskokwim校区的职位将许多Yupik学生纳入研究，那里的阿拉斯加原住民学生占学生总数的大部分。该项目将有助于我们理解语言和文化的变化，记录民族植物学的语言和概念化，并将有助于我们理解具有潜在全球应用潜力的北极植物的药用特性。

This award supports research comparing the ethnomedical knowledge and language of the Chukchi and Naukan Yupik in eastern Siberia and the Central Alaskan Yup'ik in Alaska. The basic research project is to test basic anthropological epistemologies about the relationship between culture and language, and seeks to understand the relationship between language and culture under conditions of linguistic and social change. The researcher will test this idea by examining whether there are more similarities in medical beliefs between two societies speaking similar languages and sharing a deep historical root (Naukan Yupik and Central Alaskan Yup'ik), or between two societies speaking unrelated languages, but sharing the more recent influence of the dominant Russian culture (Naukan and Chukchi). The comparison will focus on beliefs about the effects that plants have on the body, including species believed to have medicinal, nutritional and toxic properties. The research will be based on standard anthropological methods, including semi-structured interviews in each region regarding uses of plants that affect health and explanatory models of health conditions, as well as field collection of relevant botanical species. The researcher has built strong relationships with the Yup'ik community and will include many Yup'ik students in the research through his position at the Kuskokwim Campus of the University of Alaska where Alaska Native students make up the majority of the student population. This project will contribute much to our understanding of linguistic and cultural change, document ethnobotanical language and conceptualization and will contribute much to our understanding of the medicinal properties of Arctic plants that has potential global application.