Medical Landscapes During and After the Epidemic in the North Caucasus (Chechnya and Dagestan)
The project aims to explore and compare medical landscapes in Chechnya and Dagestan during and after the epidemic. The two, predominantly Muslim republics in the Russian Federation share many cultural similarities, but their authorities and inhabitants have responded differently to the Covid-19 epidemic.
In both republics, to cope with the virus, fear and uncertainty many turned to alternative healing practices such as herbal medicine, hijama (cupping) or jinn exorcisms. Others shut down their mountainous villages and decided to rely on self-subsistence focusing on cattle herding and plant gathering.
To explore social reality during and after the epidemic, in places where official sources are unreliable and fake and not-fake news are interwoven, ethnographic methods are the most suitable.
Data collected on-site during participant observation, interviews with official and complementary medicine practitioners, their patients and other inhabitants of the two locations in each of the republics area juxtaposed with data collected on-line.
An outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic was a trigger for us to ask how Chechen and Dagestani medical landscapes look like, what are their characteristic features? How a powerful non-human actor such as Sars-Cov-2 virus shapes and reshapes these landscapes? What is the role of social media and statistics in (re)shaping these medical landscapes? Are the collective cultural and religious practices bound to change during and after pandemics? And more broadly, in what aspects is the exploration of the social context of the epidemic significant?
To answer our research questions we focus on: (1) local strategies and tactics to cope with the situation of the epidemics applied by: inhabitants of the republics, medical personnel and unofficial medicine practitioners (2) reactions to restrictions and other measures taken by federal and local governments (3) cultural perceptions of the virus and its invisibility and unpredictability.
Research with contemporary methodology of medical anthropology have never been conducted in Chechnya or Dagestan. Answers to our research questions will add to the theoretical approaches in medical anthropology and anthropological studies on epidemics. They will also provide medical anthropologists with field examples from an ethnographically “neglected” region, that may be further used for comparisons. The material collected will be also a potential source of knowledge for Сovid-19 and the future epidemics.
The research team:
Iwona Kaliszewska (PI) is an assistant professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on intersections among Islam, economy, state and anti-state violence, and more recently on war and humanitarian crisis. Iwona has been conducting research projects in Dagestan and Chechnya since 2004, and lately in Ukraine. Her most recent book “For Putin and for Sharia. Dagestani Muslims and the Islamic State” was published by the Cornell University Press. In this project she conducted research in Dagestan until it was possible (Feb 2022), currently she analyzes the field material, writes academic articles.
Email: i.kaliszewska@uw.edu.pl
Iwa Kołodziejska is an assistant professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on medical anthropology, relations of plants and people, medicinal plants and human resilience. She has conducted research projects in Romania, Ukraine and Dagestan. In this project she conducted research in Dagestan until it was possible (Feb 2022) currently she analyzes the field material, provides theoretical input and writes academic papers.
E-mail: iu.kolodziejska@uw.edu.pl
Evgenia Zakharova, is a post-Doc at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. In this project (untill October 2023) she conducted research in Chechnya with “gray zone” healers and in Dagestan with doctors, she analyses the field material and writes academic papers.
E-mail: e.zakharova@uw.edu.pl
Aneta Strzemżalska, is a post-Doc at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. In this project she analyses the field material and writes academic papers. She joined the team in February 2024 and enriched the project team with the understanding of the pandemic in Azerbajan.
E-mail: a.strzemzalska@uw.edu.pl
