Stryamets Nataliya, Prakofjewa Julia, Mattalia Giulia, Kalle Raivo, Pruse Baiba, Zocchi Dauro M, Sõukand Renata, Pieroni Andrea, Fontefrancesco Michele F
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, Mestre, 30172, Venice, Italy.
University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042, Pollenzo, Italy.
J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2022 Mar 22;18(1):21. doi: 10.1186/s13002-022-00523-x.
Ethnobiology and ethnomedicine investigate the continuously changing complex and inextricable relations among culture, nature, and health. Since the emergence of modern ethnobiology a few decades ago, its essence and mission have been the study of biocultural diversities and the centers of its inquiries have been and are local communities and their co-evolutionary interrelationships between natural environments and social systems. At the core of ethnobiologists' work there are not only conceptualizations of and reflections on others' views about nature and the universe, but also a robust commitment to advocacy in defense of these assemblages of local ecological knowledge, practices, and beliefs (LEK). Homogenization processes and therefore erosion of LEK have occurred throughout history in different ways: from colonialism to industrialization, and from financialization to globalization; however, we cannot forget the role played by centripetal states and even dictatorships in this process, nor the associated political ideology of nationalism, which has often elicited and justified policies aimed at standardizing diversities within state borders. Our research groups have been working since eight years together with local communities in Ukrainian rural areas and documented a remarkable erosion of LEK during the Soviet times, yet an extraordinary surviving biocultural diversity occurs; the ongoing military occupation of Ukraine could further threaten this heritage. While citizens' attention now should be on effectively supporting those who are experiencing hardships during this traumatic time, ethnobiologists will be called hopefully soon to directly participate in rebuilding the biocultural "cobwebs" damaged by the military operations.
民族生物学和民族医学研究文化、自然与健康之间不断变化的复杂且不可分割的关系。自几十年前现代民族生物学出现以来，其本质和使命一直是对生物文化多样性的研究，其研究核心过去是、现在仍然是当地社区以及它们在自然环境与社会系统之间的共同进化的相互关系。在民族生物学家的工作核心中，不仅有对他人关于自然和宇宙观点的概念化及反思，还有对捍卫这些当地生态知识、实践和信仰（LEK）组合的有力倡导承诺。在历史上，同质化进程以及因此导致的LEK侵蚀以不同方式出现：从殖民主义到工业化，从金融化到全球化；然而，我们不能忘记集权国家甚至独裁政权在这一进程中所起的作用，也不能忘记与之相关的民族主义政治意识形态，它常常引发并为旨在使国界内的多样性标准化的政策提供正当理由。我们的研究团队八年来一直在乌克兰农村地区与当地社区合作，并记录了苏联时期LEK的显著侵蚀，但仍存在非凡的生物文化多样性；乌克兰目前正在遭受的军事占领可能会进一步威胁这一遗产。虽然现在公民的注意力应集中在有效支持那些在这段创伤时期经历艰难困苦的人们身上，但希望民族生物学家很快能被召集起来，直接参与重建因军事行动而受损的生物文化“蜘蛛网”。
