First Information Letter
July 5, 2007
Komi Science Center
Ural Division
Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Language, Literature and History
Institute of Biology Dear colleagues!
The Institute of Language, Literature and History and the Institute of Biology, Komi SC, Ural Division, RAS announce an interdisciplinary international symposium “Folk medicine in the cultural adaptation system of the population of European North: results and perspectives of interdisciplinary research”. The symposium will be held in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, Russia in September 25 - 27, 2007.
Folk medicine represents one of the most important mechanisms of human adaptation to environments. It actively utilizes local natural resources in order to treat the physical and psychological diseases induced by the local conditions as well as to maintain the minimum life expectancy needed for sustainable re-production of an ethnic group. The traditional systems of diseases’ curing and prophylactics included natural medicaments, physiotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic methods, certain standards of and beliefs about healthy way of life, rational diet, private and social hygiene. These systems proved to be quite effective and they survived, although with modifications, up until now. Due to socio-economic and ethical reasons, the interest towards the traditional medicine has significantly increased in the course of last decade among both specialists and general public. While the ordinary people often see the folk medicine as an alternative to the scientific one, medical specialists, representatives of the scientific medicine, seem to be quite willing to include the folk tradition and experience into their practice. All this makes the interdisciplinary researches of the traditional medical cultures especially important. The results and perspectives of these researchers represent the main focus of our symposium.We propose the following topics of discussion during the symposium:
- Local traditions in the medical cultures of the ethnic groups of European North.
- Problems of systematization and codification of the traditional medical knowledge.
- Problems of preserving and transmitting ethical and professional norms among the folk heelers. The personality and practice of a folk heeler.
- How, if at all, the traditional medical knowledge can be incorporated into the modern scientific medicine?
- Ethnobotanic researches and perspectives of creating new adaptogenic and immunostimulating medical drugs for increasing life quality and correcting adaptive reactions of human organisms in northern environment.
The contributions to the symposium are planned to be published in 2008.
In the case You are interested in participating in our symposium, please inform us about this by “online registration form” of by email: ilina56@mail.ru by July, 25th, 2007.
The additional information about the funding possibilities available from the organization committee will be provided later.
The heads of the organization committee:
Vladimir Volodin
Irina Ilyina
Address:
Institute of Language, Literature and History
Komi SC, Ural Division, RAS
Kommunisticheskaya str. 26
167982, Syktyvkar
Komi Republic
Russia
E-mail: ilina56@mail.ru