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Naukan Yupik以及阿拉斯加中部的阿拉斯加Yup'ik的民族医学知识和语言进行比较的研究。基本研究项目是测试关于文化和语言之间的关系的基本人类学认识论，并试图了解语言和社会变化条件下的语言和文化之间的关系。 研究人员将通过检查两个社会之间是否有更多的相似之处来测试这一想法，这两个社会说着类似的语言，并共享一个深刻的历史根源（Naukan Yupik和Central Alaskan Yup'ik），或者两个社会说着不相关的语言，但共享俄罗斯主流文化的最近影响（Naukan和Chukchi）。比较将集中在关于植物对身体影响的信念上，包括被认为具有药用，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，包括在每个地区就影响健康的植物的使用和健康状况的解释模型进行半结构化访谈，以及实地收集相关植物物种。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，阿拉斯加土著学生占学生人口的大多数。 该项目将大大有助于我们对语言和文化变化的理解，记录民族植物学语言和概念化，并将大大有助于我们对具有潜在全球应用的北极植物的药用特性的理解。

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.