经济学人166:传统社会 不绕弯子

　　Traditional societies

传统社会

No beating about the bush

不绕弯子

America's best-known geographer 1 shows what there is to learn from early man

美国最为知名的地理学家认为我们应该向早期人类学习

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?

昨日世界：传统社会有何借鉴之处？》

1 JARED DIAMOND has made a name for himself explaining why some societies do well and others do not. In “Guns, Germs and Steel”, his 1997 bestseller, he brushed aside the arrogant 2 view that ascribed Europe's dominance to human biology, stressing instead the continent's environmental advantages, notably 3 its native wheat and barley 4 and its easily domesticated 5 animals. He followed this up eight years later with “Collapse”, another exhaustive study, this time about how certain societies caused their own demise 6 by ruining the environs that sustained them. Read together, these are civilisation-scale books about survival.

贾雷德戴蒙德因为分析了一些社会运行良好一些社会难以为继的原因而名声大噪。他执笔的《枪炮、病菌与钢铁》是1997年的畅销书。书中，他对 “欧洲社会之所以运行良好，是因为其主导了人类生物学领域” 这一自负论断不屑一顾，在他看来，欧洲大陆的昌盛是因为欧洲优越的环境特别适合种植小麦、大麦以及饲养家畜。八年后，他奉献了耗时良久的又一力作-《崩溃:社会如何选择成败兴亡》。书中主要内容是介绍一些人类社会是如何毁掉自己赖以生存的周遭环境，进而导致自己灭亡的。两本书都是文明层面上有关人类生存的书籍。

But they cover only a small portion of the human story. In his new book Mr Diamond, a geographer at UCLA, points out that life on this scale is a recent phenomenon. For most of history human beings lived in small groups as hunter-gatherers. Agriculture began 11,000 years ago; state government not even half as recently.But Mr Diamond, who has spent years studying in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and learning from local tribes people, argues that mankind retains important links to its distant past and can still learn a thing or two from traditional societies.

不过，这两本书中写到的只是人类故事的冰山一角。现任教于美国加州洛杉矶分校地理学系的贾雷德.戴蒙德在他的新书中写到人类今天以这种模式生存只是近代才有的一种现象。在历史的大部分时期，人们一直以类似于狩猎者一样聚居的方式生存，毕竟人类开始从事农业生产的历史也才11,000多年，国家政府也是在近代5500多年前才出现。戴蒙德教授花了八年时间呆在巴布亚新几内亚的丛林里，研究当地的部落居民，得出了这样的结论：人类仍旧与遥远的过去保持着重要的联系，传统社会有很多事情值得我们借鉴。

Mr Diamond writes, for example, that most societies have held on to some form of religion as a way of maintaining social order, comforting the anxious and teaching political obedience 7. Tribal 8 societies in New Guinea rarely, if ever, fight over religious matters. These societies also tend to be more multilingual, helpful for diplomacy 9 perhaps, and as it turns out, also a way of protecting against Alzheimer's. There are 1,000 different languages in New Guinea alone. Traditional societies resolve disputes by making do entirely 10 without the state. In stark 11 contrast to the American criminal-justice system, the leopard-skin-draped chief of Sudan's Nuer people has no role in settling disputes but works to facilitate mediation 12 and calculate traditional forms of compensation.

比如，戴蒙德教授在书中就这样写到：大部分人类社会都保留了某种宗教形式，用于维持社会治安、安抚社会急躁情绪、 维持政治统治。不过， 新几内亚的部落居民却从未因为宗教事务发生过冲突。这些原始的部落使用的语言不止一种， 或许这样有助于人们交往。事实上证明，使用多种语言也是防治老年痴呆症的好方法。单单在新几内亚就有1000多种语言。传统社会一般在没有国家机器的状态下，就能解决所有冲突。与美国刑事司法系统截然不同的是，苏丹身穿豹纹皮的努尔部落首领没有权力解决纠纷，但是可以采用传统的计算方法核算补偿，从中进行调停。

Other things have changed, not all of them for the better. The gluttonous 13 industrialised world could benefit from a more Palaeolithic diet. Traditional societies have hardly a trace of the West's main non-communicable diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes, diabetes 14 and many forms of cancer—the hallmarks of a diet rich in salt and saturated 15 fat.Thanks to a cuisine 16 of mainly low-sodium bananas, Brazil's Yanomamo Indians consume only 50 milligrams of salt a day. One Big Mac would give them a month's worth. Tribespeople who adopt a sedentary lifestyle and eat processed food show a sharp increase in the same diseases that afflict 17 Westerners. A third of urbanised Australian aboriginals 18 suffer from type-2 diabetes, and among the Wanigela in Port Moresby, New Guinea's modern capital city, the figure is closer to 40%.

很多事情已经改变，但是并不尽如人意。 生活在贪婪的工业社会的人们可以多学学旧石器时代的饮食习惯，相信会受益良多。生活在传统社会的人，几乎没人得过类似于心脏病、中风、糖尿病和多种癌症等困扰西方人的常见非传染疾病。这些疾病是食用含盐量高和脂肪饱和食物的有力证明。多亏了食用含钠较低的香蕉，巴西的雅诺玛莫印度人一天食盐摄入量只有仅仅50毫克。一个大苹果，就能让他们大快朵颐。那些习惯了长时间坐着工作、食用加工食品生活方式的部落居民，患上那些困扰西方人疾病的几率聚居上升。生活在城里的澳大利亚原住民，有三分之一患上了Ⅱ型糖尿病。生活在巴布亚新几内亚的现代化首都摩尔贝斯港的Wanigela人，患该类糖尿病的比例将近40%。

Mr Diamond is at his most impressed when it comes to tribal family life. He writes of missionary 19 children who prefer the playgroups of traditional societies that bring together children of different ages to the solitary 20 fixation on video games that are common back home. Raising children is a communal 21 affair in which the elderly are deeply involved, unlike what happens in most Western countries. He cites studies that show that an African Aka pygmy infant, for example, is looked after by at least seven people and babies in the Efe tribe by as many as 14.At the same time, he writes, children in traditional households seem to enjoy more autonomy. In the Kalahari the !Kung do not resort to physical punishment; instead children are allowed to slap and insult their parents. And New Guinea Highlander 22 children are encouraged to play with knives and with fire, precisely 23 so that they are able to learn from their mistakes.

最让戴蒙德教授印象深刻的是部落的家庭生活。他书中写到，比起一回到家一律死盯着电动游戏的孩子相比，传教士的孩子更喜欢在传统社会的操场上玩，在那里，不同年纪的孩子能在一起嬉闹追逐。与大部分西方国家不同的是，在部落家庭里，抚养孩子是集体的事情，老人是这个过程中绝对的主角。有研究显示，非洲地区的阿卡俾格米矮人族的婴儿由至少7人照顾，埃菲社里的婴儿至少由14个人照顾。他书中就引用了这项研究。同时，他还写到，传统家庭长大的孩子似乎想要更多的自主性。喀拉哈沙漠 the Kung人种不会体罚孩子，相反允许孩子侮辱、打骂家长。为了让孩子可以从错误中切身地汲取教训，新几内亚的高地人鼓励孩子玩火，耍刀。

In all this, the author's argument is not that we should abandon our modern way of life—he certainly has not—nor does he romanticise traditional people as earth-loving peaceniks. A tribal life can, after all, be nasty and brutish. Few people live past the age of 50, mostly because of curable diseases. For the !Kung, infanticide has been permitted in order to preserve resources in lean times. Bolivia's Siriono Indians abandoned their elderly once they became a burden. North American Crow Indians encouraged them to commit suicide. Tribal warfare 24 may kill far fewer than 21st-century mechanised versions, but there is still a constant fear of raids and revenge killings 25. And a higher percentage of the population dies fighting.

作者这么写，不是说人们应该放弃现代生活方式，他也没有这层意思。他也没有把传统社会生活的人们美化成和平分子。毕竟，部落里的生活是不文明而且残酷的。部落里的人很少有活过50的，大部分死于可以治疗的疾病。在the！kung 民族里，收成不好的时节，为了节省资源，人们可以屠杀婴儿。玻利维亚的西瑞诺娜民族会遗弃拖累族群的老人。北美的客如印第安人鼓励孩子杀人。部落争斗中丧生的人大大少于21世纪机械化战争中死亡的人数，但是部落居民一直都有遭受突袭、仇杀之类的担忧。部落人口中很大一部分死于部落斗争。

Nor is subsistence living for the faint- hearted. Shortages can mean starvation. Taro 26, a tropical-root vegetable, is the staple 27 food of the Kaulong people of New Britain, an island off Papua New Guinea. But in the dry season they are forced to scour 28 the forest for insects, snails 29 and unpalatable plants. Toxic 30 wild nuts must be soaked in water for days to leach 31 out the poison.

书中，他也没有说胆小鬼有生存的可能。物资短缺可意味着要挨饿。巴布亚新几内亚群岛附近的一座名为新英格兰的岛生活着卡隆民族，他们的主食就是热带根茎蔬菜芋头。但是一到旱季，他们就得去森林捉昆虫，蜗牛以及不怎么美味的植物充饥。他们还会把有毒的野生坚果浸在水里数日，溶解毒性后食用。

Mr Diamond's book is mostly a fascinating survey of a rapidly fading world. Only when it tries to pose as a handbook for tribal living does it fall flat. Comparing traditional strategies for maximising crop yields with modern ways of managing financial investments is more banal 32 than original. Our forebears have been around for a lot longer than we have; learning how they did so should be lesson enough.

很大程度上来说，戴蒙德教授的新书是对快速消亡世界的一次引人入胜的探寻。如果把这本书当成部落生活的手册，那么这本书就完全算不上好书。把最大程度上提高收成的传统方法与现代金融投资管理方式相比是一种没有创意而且很迂腐的行为。我们的祖先先于我们存在很久，弄明白他们是如何做到这一点就足够我们学一辈子的了。