Ethnobotanical Knowledge of an Eskimo Family: Naukan Yupiks [Etnobotanicheskoe znanie odnoi eskimosskoi sem’i: naukanskie yupiki]

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
V. Kolosova ◽  
◽  
Kevin Jernigan ◽  
Olga Belichenko ◽  
◽  
...  

This article analyzes the Naukan Yupiks ethnobotanical knowledge, i.e. the use of plants as food, medicine, household or ritual objects, on the example of one family. The resettlement from Cape Dezhnev to other settlements led to significant changes in their culture and language proficiency. Fieldwork was carried out in summer 2014 in the village of Uelen, Chukotka, using the methods of structured interviews and participant observation. Informants named 26 species belonging to 18 families; these species gave a total of 170 plant uses. Within one family, there is a sharp decline in the knowledge of the Naukan phytonyms, as well as the repertoire of plants used from older generations to younger ones. The disappearing knowledge includes the collection of plant roots harvested by tundra voles. However, aerial parts of plants, berries, and algae remain popular. The variety of methods for preparing plants is increasing, including due to contact with the Russian-speaking population and access to new technologies.

Botany ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (5) ◽  
pp. 271-282
Author(s):  
Alain Cuerrier ◽  
Courtenay Clark ◽  
Christian H. Norton

Plants are important in traditional Inuit life. They are used for food, tea, medicine, etc. Based on semi-structured interviews with 35 informants, we documented and compared plant names and uses in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik, and in Nain, Nunatsiavut. Plant names and uses were expected to be similar between communities owing to common boreal–subarctic environments and cultural ties. Both communities reported the same number of taxa, with equivalent proportions of vascular and nonvascular plants, growth forms, use categories, and medicinal uses. Forty-three species were used in each community, for a total of 78 species from 39 families. Despite a high overlap in species distributions, only 35% of nonvascular and 56% of vascular species were used in both communities. Correspondence was higher at the family level (64% of nonvascular and 75% of vascular families shared). The Ericaceae family was the most used, followed by Rosaceae. Thirteen of 30 medicinal species were shared between communities. There was a low correspondence regarding the conditions for which the medicinal species were used. Edible taxa were shared the most (52%). Plant uses unique to either Nain or Kangiqsualujjuaq may reveal separate bodies of traditional knowledge, or may reflect an overall loss of ethnobotanical knowledge in the Subarctic due to recent lifestyle changes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Shiva Vasi ◽  
Jenny Advocat ◽  
Akuh Adaji ◽  
Grant Russell

Structured, multidisciplinary approaches to chronic disease management (CDM) in primary care, supported by eHealth tools, show improved clinical outcomes, yet the uptake of eHealth tools remains low. The adoption of cdmNet, an eHealth tool for chronic disease management, in general practice settings, was explored. This was a qualitative case study in three general practice clinics in Melbourne, Australia. Methods included non-participant observation, reflexive note taking and semi-structured interviews with GPs, non-GP clinical staff, administrative staff and patients with chronic conditions. Data were analysed iteratively and results were reviewed at regular team meetings. Findings highlighted the significance of clinical and organisational routines in determining practice readiness for embedding innovations. In particular, clinical routines that supported a structured approach to CDM involving team-based care, allocation of resources, training and leadership were fundamental to facilitating the adoption of the eHealth tool. Non-GP roles were found to be key in developing routines that facilitated the adoption of cdmNet within a structured approach to CDM. Practice managers, administrators and clinicians should first focus on routinising processes in primary care practices that support structured and team-based processes for CDM because without these processes, new technologies will not be embedded.


Author(s):  
Ana Melro ◽  
Lídia Oliveira ◽  
Ana Carla Amaro

The chapter takes a journey through the place, revisiting the central dimensions for its development, particularly, for LOCUS project – playful connected rural territories. These dimensions are playfulness, labor and school, affection, architecture, and religion. For the knowledge and understanding of all these dimensions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants, agents from and in the territory (stakeholders), informal conversations with inhabitants, and participant observation of two of the oldest traditional festivals in the village. Amiais is facing some social and demographic processes, (1) search of the younger population for more densified urban areas, (2) which leads to aging population and depopulation of the territory, which tends to cause the (3) loss of cultural heritage, but, at the same time, (4) a change in local architecture.


Author(s):  
Deepak Nair

AbstractThis article advances a methodological argument on how to do ethnographic fieldwork amid social elites and inaccessible bureaucracies in international politics. Instead of participant observation or semi-structured interviews, the article proposes “hanging out” as an alternative strategy to generate immersion and ethnographic insight. While the ethnographer studying “down” is arguably always “hanging out” (the village as the exemplary mise-en-scene of this genre), this technique takes a more defined form when studying “up” elites. Specifically, hanging out when studying “up” is a strategy where the fieldworker commits to a period of continuous residence amid members of a community; engages in ludic, informal, and often sociable interactions outside or at the sidelines of their professional habitats; and participates in a range of activities where building rapport is as important as the primary goals of the research. I illustrate this methodological strategy and its payoffs by reflecting upon a year of fieldwork among the diplomats and bureaucrats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations—an informal, quiet, and often sub rosa diplomatic project run by a band of mostly authoritarian states in Southeast Asia. This article contributes to debates on the viability of ethnographic fieldwork in international relations (IR); advances a methodological corrective to fieldwork prescriptions in new micropolitical studies of practice, interactions, and emotions in IR; and offers a practical illustration of what studying “up” looks like in diplomacy and international politics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-139
Author(s):  
Soraya Benzerdjeb

Graduate Algerian economic sciences students, who will be future university teachers or workplace managers, are urged to use the English language. However, most of them reveal that they are unable to use the English language appropriately. The main aim in this paper is to depict students’ difficulties and help them improve their academic language performance. This paper describes the teaching and learning situations of English for Business and Economics (EBE) in the Department of Economic Sciences at the University of Tlemcen. The investigator used a questionnaire and two structured interviews. The sampling included EBE learners and English for specific purposes teachers as well as workplace managers (former EBE students). The main findings in this investigation confirmed that students had poor target language proficiency. Results revealed that the content of the actual EBE course was inappropriate to learners’ needs. The investigator wants to integrate new technologies as the government supplies digital platforms to the Algerian universities.   Keywords: Algerian, tertiary education, English, Economics, business students.


Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Nawaz ◽  
Susanna Klassen ◽  
Alexandra Lyon

A host of technologies is rapidly entering agriculture. These new technologies—particularly gene editing—represent multifaceted shifts beyond “genetic modification” (GM), and are outpacing both public understanding and the capacity of regulatory regimes. This paper employs the case of the organic sectors in Canada and the United States, strongholds of GM resistance, to examine conversations about gene-editing technologies unfolding within the organic community, and elucidate their implications for the sector. We employ the concept of “boundary work” to illuminate how key actors and institutions delineate the concept of organic breeding in the face of emerging technologies. We draw upon semi-structured interviews with organic sector representatives, a review of documents published by organic organizations, and data from participant observation. We find that the organic community is reaffirming and deepening boundaries in response to arguments made by proponents of gene editing. Both internal and external pressures on the sector are facilitating a dampening effect on conversations about the boundaries between gene editing and organic agriculture, as the sector is compelled to present a united voice against the affront of new genetic technologies. The sector is also redrawing existing boundaries, as the advent of gene editing has forced conversations about the compatibility of both new and established breeding methods with organic. The resulting questions about what distinguishes acceptable levels of human intervention in plant genomes are highlighting some differences within the diverse organic community. We also argue that debates about gene editing and organic breeding may be “bounding out” important actors from deliberation processes, and note initial attempts to reckon with this exclusion.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-313
Author(s):  
Viola Vadász

AbstractThis research was carried out in the framework of a larger qualitative study within the Hungarian community in Israel. The original aim was to identify and describe the appearance of the Hungarian language in the Israeli linguistic landscape. However, in the meantime, it became very clear that the existence and characteristics of the Hungarian community and the language they use is strongly connected to food and its position in the ancestral heritage. From that point, we aimed to show what it means to be Hungarian in Israel when it comes to cuisine and food as well as how culinary traditions relate to education and heritage transfer. Semi-structured interviews, biographical narrative interviews and participant observation as research methods shaped the complete picture we received. As the results show, few new initiations are slowly entering the canon of Hungarian-Israeli culinary traditions, but mostly it stands on its traditional feet. Wider communication, increased civic and youth awareness and reinforced gastronomic culture could promote new concepts and interest of younger people being interest in learning their culture and language of origin, and the related traditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Cantífula de Castro

Organizational communication is a key element for the survival, maintenance and consolidation of human relationships in the workplace. This research aims to understand how organizational communication is being managed in the Mozambican Catholic Vida Nova Magazine, verifying how inclusive communication contributes to maintaining good quality of the journal and a high productivity of employees. The methodology used was qualitative, with a field work that consisted of participant observation for one year, complemented by semi-structured interviews with key witnesses. The results showed that Vida Nova Magazine experiences a particular kind of participatory, dialogical and strategic communication processes, coming mainly from the spontaneity of personal relations and communication among employees rather than due to a strategic option of the management. In view of the global demands in the field of social communication, Vida Nova Magazine seeks to broaden its field of action using instrumental forms of communication, based on new technologies, as digital platforms, both social networks and the website. The socialization process of its employees is promising as it cooperates in the consolidation of personal life and is expected to have a new life with Vida Nova. Keywords: organizational communication, collaborators socialization, community life, information processing


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Maria Guarrera ◽  
Valentina Savo ◽  
Giulia Caneva

Traditional knowledge of local plant uses is rapidly fading away, especially in rural Mediterranean areas. We carried out ethnobotanical research in 2010-2011 in order to investigate the local knowledge of wild plants in the Tolfa–Cerite–Manziate area of Italy (Latium, district of Rome). We carried out a total of 45 semi-structured interviews with farmers, herders, and fishers. Here, a simple diachronic comparison is made between the current study and a previous one conducted in some of the villages of the study area to highlight potential losses of traditional knowledge of local plants. We documented a total of 102 plant species, belonging to 48 families, along with their uses (excluding food uses). We also reported some non-plant based remedies that were primarily used in veterinary medicine. Some plant uses, especially for making handicrafts, have not been reported previously (e.g., those of Celtis australis L. Cannabaceae, Betula pendula Roth Betulaceae). Many plant uses are no longer remembered in the area, which indicates a loss of local ethnobotanical knowledge.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela Caravello

The research deepens the role of new technologies in the construction of geographical imaginaries investigating the dimension of the offer related to the cultural heritage of the city of Palermo. The study was conducted using qualitative methods and provided for the application of two research techniques: participant observation and semi-structured interviews. By interpreting the results produced, the contribution aims to highlight the predominance of an urban image, linked to the UNESCO inclusion of the site in the World Heritage List, which is conveyed through new technologies. Developing a reflection on the alternative capacity of new media to dislocate and challenge shared images, the study will also examine the role of technologies in the production of imaginative counter-geographies.


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