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

University Of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

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.