Plant Hunting: Evenki Medicines in Northern Baikal

Аффилиация: Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
Адрес: Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg

Название журнала

Этнографическое обозрение

Выпуск

№6

Страницы

242-252

Аннотация

The article discusses the attitudes of the Northern Baikal Evenkis toward the flora, formed by the situation of relative autonomy. The focus is on plants that people use in medical practice and are in great demand. The article examines the knowledge of the Northern Baikal Evenkis about the healing properties of two plants that they consider universal medicines – Gentiana algida and Rhodiola rosea, sometimes called as the “Evenki’ medicines”. It considers human interactions with these medicinal plants in the context of mobility, as well as human, animal and landscape relations, and describes the practice of their harvesting by hunters and reindeer herders. The Evenki hunting ethos and ideas about hunting luck are part of the system of relations between humans and the environment and manifest themselves in the practice of searching for and collecting medicinal plants. Local knowledge about their beneficial properties was formed under the influence of observations of animals’ behaviour. The strategies for the use of medical devices and the practice of prevention and treatment of diseases by Evenkis were formed under conditions of constant resource shortages. Reindeer husbandry and hunting demanded that people in constant motion improve the skills of maintaining a relative autonomy that is a certain type of attitude towards resources as well as medicines, based on minimizing their consumption. In such conditions, medicines with a wide spectrum of action turned out to be especially in demand.

Ключевые слова

ethnomedicine, medicinal plants, Evenkis, Northern Baikal, autonomy, mobility, hunting luck, Gentiana algida, Rhodiola rosea

Источник финансирования

This article is a translation of: В.Н. Давыдов. Охота за растениями: “эвенкийские лекарства” на Северном Байкале // Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie. 2021. No 5. P. 70–83. DOI: 10.31857/S086954150017415-6. The original research was supported by the following institutions and grants: Russian Science Foundation, https://doi.org/10.13039/501100006769 [grant no. 18-18-00309]

Получено

20.12.2021

Дата публикации

23.12.2021

Кол-во символов

32640

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ГОСТ	Давыдов В. Н. Plant Hunting: “Evenki Medicines” in Northern Baikal // Этнографическое обозрение – 2021. – №6 C. 242-252 [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/ethnorev/s086954150017607-7-1 (дата обращения: 29.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S086954150017607-7
MLA	Davydov, Vladimir N. "Plant Hunting: “Evenki Medicines” in Northern Baikal." Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 6 (2021):242-252. DOI: 10.31857/S086954150017607-7
APA	Davydov V. (2021). Plant Hunting: “Evenki Medicines” in Northern Baikal. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie (6), pp.242-252 DOI: 10.31857/S086954150017607-7

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1	It is common knowledge that plants have always occupied an important position in the ethnomedical practice of various groups of Evenkis – different researchers have paid attention to their good knowledge of the local flora for a long time. Back in 1873, A.L. Chekanovsky, who collected plant samples in the Lower Tunguska River Basin, recorded their Evenki names and marked their healing properties (Vasilevich 1969: 187). Nevertheless, despite the fact that the local flora was widely used by Evenkis in the treatment of diseases, only general, incomplete information about this can be found in the academic literature (Namzalov et al. 2017: 52). There are only a few publications emphasizing the special role of plants in Evenki ethnomedical practices (Namzalov et al. 2013, 2017; Bakhanova 2009; Dmitrieva 2006; Kolosovsky 1990).
2	This article includes materials collected by the author within 15 months (during the period from 2007 to 2018) of field research in the Severobaikal’skii raion of the Republic of Buryatia. The main methods included observation and semi-structured interviews.
3	The author of the article worked among Evenkis – hunters and reindeer breeders – in national villages and on the territories of the Evenki obshchinas (clan communities) “Oron” and “Uluki”. This article discusses the practices of the North Baikal Evenkis associated with the collection, processing and use of universal “Evenki medicines” – two medicinal plants – Gentiana algida and Rhodiola rosea.
4	“Medical pluralism”
5	Before proceeding directly to the consideration of the herborization methods, as well as obtaining and using medicinal plants, it is important to focus on the fact how the Evenkis of Northern Baikal perceive medical practices. Also, it is necessary to figure out what means are used in case of different needs. In general, the current situation can be described as “medical pluralism” (Anderson 2011). Local people do not oppose official medicine and folk medicine, they use any information and do not neglect any available means.
6	The first permanently practicing paramedics appeared on Northern Baikal at the beginning of the XX century. Many of them worked as teachers in schools in parallel. A serious step towards the creation of a medical care system in the region was the formation in 1925 of mobile medical groups by the Russian Red Cross Society and the People's Commissariat of Health (Shubin 2001: 104). In the early Soviet period, the regional authorities organized several expeditions to collect data on the health of Evenkis. In 1925-1927, physicians Perevodchikov (1925), Agrovsky (1926-1927) and Ogint (NARB 1:49) worked in the group sent to the Baunt Evenkis. In 1927, a graduate of the Saratov Medical Institute, Agrovsky began working with the Kindigir Evenkis in a new small hospital built in the village of Dushkachan (Shubin 2001: 104, 105; AMAE: 31, 42) – the entire hospital staff at that time consisted of two people (AMAE: 30ob.).
7	It is known that in the early 1920s, the Shamagir Evenkis from the village of Tompa, who lived on the northeastern shore of Lake Baikal, belonged to the clinic No. 7, located 133 km south of the village (NARB 3:26). At that time, it was a formal registration, and few of those assigned to the hospital visited it because of the great distance. Since the local population (Evenkis and Buryats) needed constant medical care, in 1926 a small medical center with five beds was opened in the village of Tompa. However, for example, in 1927 the paramedic worked in the village only in August, and in the next eight months, he came only once and only for a week (Ibid.).
8	Nevertheless, the regional authorities did not abandon the idea of organizing medical care for the local population. As part of the implementation of this task, despite the shortage of specialists, permanent medical posts were created in large settlements. Quite often, those who worked in them did not have a medical education and did not know how to treat patients. For example, local people were afraid of the director Nikulin of the Nizhneangarskii medical center, who unknowingly regularly prescribed the wrong medicines (NARB 2: 102-103), and in the villages of Kumora and Goremyka (contemporary Baikal’skoe) people who did not trust the specialists of the points opened in the mid-1920s preferred to go to healers and sorcerers (NARB 2). Therefore, V. Neupokoev wrote that they turned to a shaman or were treated independently using medicinal plants (Neupokoev 1928: 10). It can be stated that in the early Soviet period, for healing from various ailments, Evenkis used knowledge distributed among representatives of the local community, not least related to medicinal plants. At the same time, if necessary, people turned to doctors. As V. Neupokoev wrote, “Tungus, especially a man, has already realized the benefits of European medicine and, whenever possible, always willingly goes for medical help” (Ibid.: 10). It should be noted that, despite the permanent medical centers opened in the 1920s and 1930s in the dwellers of Northern Baikal, hunters and reindeer herders, who spent a significant part of their time in the taiga, continued to use traditional medicine for the most part.

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Plant Hunting: “Evenki Medicines” in Northern Baikal

Оглавление

“Medical pluralism”