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

该奖项支持对西伯利亚东部的楚科奇人和诺坎尤皮克人以及阿拉斯加中部的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。基础研究项目是测试关于文化与语言关系的基本人类学认识论，并试图理解语言和社会变化条件下的语言与文化之间的关系。研究人员将通过检查两个使用相似语言并拥有深厚历史根源的社会（Naukan Yupik和Central alaska Yup'ik）之间的医学信仰是否有更多相似之处，或者两个使用不相关语言但共享主导俄罗斯文化的影响的社会（Naukan和Chukchi）之间的医学信仰是否有更多相似之处来验证这一观点。比较将集中在人们对植物对身体的影响的看法上，包括那些被认为具有药用、营养和毒性的物种。这项研究将以标准的人类学方法为基础，包括在每个区域就影响健康的植物的用途和健康状况的解释模型进行半结构化访谈，以及实地收集有关植物物种。研究人员与Yup'ik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Yup'ik学生纳入研究，阿拉斯加原住民学生占学生人数的大多数。该项目将有助于我们了解语言和文化变化，记录民族植物学语言和概念化，并将有助于我们了解具有潜在全球应用价值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.