Civilization, Past & Present Longman, Inc.,  2000. New York.

 

《古今文明》朗曼公司，2000年， 纽约。

 

　The Universal Culture Pattern

 

　In the interplay of humans with their environment and fellow beings, certain fundamental needs are always present. Six needs, common to people at all times and in all places, form the basis of "a universal culture pattern":

 

普遍文化模式

 

在人类与周边环境和同类的互动中，永远存在着某些最根本的需求。对无论何时何地的人类都一样，六种需要构成了“普遍文化模式”的基础。

 

　1. The need to survive. Men and women must have food. shelter, clothing, and the means to provide for their offsprings' survival.

 

1.生存需要  男人和女人必须吃、住、穿，必须具备为其子孙后代提供生存的手段。

 

　2. The need for social organization.    For people to make a living, raise families, and maintain order, a social structure is essential.

 

2.社会组织的需要 为使人民能够生存、养家糊口，并保持秩序，一个社会结构是不可或缺的。

 

　3.The need for stability and protection.  From earliest times, communities have had to keep peace among their members, defend themselves against extra attack, and protect community assets.

 

3.稳定和保护的需要 始自最久远的时期，人类团体不得不在其成员间保持和平，在外来进攻中进行自卫，并且保护团体的财产。

 

　4. The need for knowledge and learning. Since earliest times, humankind has transmitted knowledge acquired through experience, first orally, then by means of writing systems, and now by electronic means as well.  As societies grow more complex, there is increasing need to preserve knowledge and transmit it through education to as many people as possible.

 

4.知识和学问的需要 自远古时期以来，人类已经传承了通过经验获得的知识，先是通过口头，然后通过书写系统，而现在更通过电子手段。当社会变得更加复杂时，通过教育尽量多的人以保存和传承知识的需要就日益强烈。

 

　5. The need for self-expression.  People responded creatively to their environment even before the days when they decorated the walls of Paleolithic caves with paintings of the animals they hunted。 The arts appear to have a lineage as old as human experience.

 

5.自我表达的需要 甚至在用猎获的动物作画，以装饰新石器洞穴的墙壁之前，人类就创造性地回应着自己的环境。这些艺术似乎有着与人类经历同样古老的脉络和传统。

 

　6. The need for religious expression.  Equally old is humanity's attempt to answer the "why" of its existence. What early peoples considered supernatural in their environment could often, as a later time, be explained by science in terms of natural phenomena. Yet today, no less than in archaic times, men and women continue to search for answers to the ultimate questions of existence.

 

6.宗教表达的需要 同样古老的是，人类早就试图回答他们自己经历中的“为什么”。早期人类把周边环境中看作超自然的事物，后来常常都被已科学证实为自然现象。然而，今天的男女们并不逊色于古代时期，仍在追寻着关于生存的终极问题的答案。

 

　Culture Change and Culture Lag

 

　When people in a group behave similarly and share the same institutions and ways of life, they can be said to have common culture. Throughout this text we will be looking at a number of different cultures, some of which are designated as civilizations. (If all societies have culture, then civilization is a particular kind of culture). "A culture is a way of life of a human group; it includes all the learned and standardized forms of behaviour which one uses and others in one's group expect and recognize....civilization is that kind of culture which includes the use of writing , the presence of cities and of wide political organization, and development of occupational specialization".[1]

 

 

文化变化和文化迟滞

 

　　当某一人群中的人们行为相似并共享同样的制度和生活方式时，就可以说他们拥有共同的文化。贯穿本书的始终，我们将关注一些不同的文化，其中一些被冠名为文明（如果所有的社会都拥有文化，那文明就是一种特殊的文化）。“一种文化是某一人群的生活方式；它包括全部有知识的和标准化的行为方式，这种个人采取的行为方式，受到同一人群中其他人的尊重和认可...。文明是那样一种文化，它包括文字的使用，城市和广泛的政治组织的存在，还有职业专门化的发展。

 

　Cultures are never wholly static or wholly isolated. A particular culture may have an individuality that sets it off sharply from other cultures, but invariably it has been influenced by external contacts. Such contacts may be either peaceful or warlike, and they meet with varying degrees of acceptance. Through these contacts occurs the process of culture diffusion. Geography, too, has profoundly influenced the development of cultures, although we should not exaggerate its importance.  Environmental influences tend to become less marked as people gain technological skills and mastery over the land. 

 

    文化绝非完全静止或完全孤立的。一种特别的文化可能具有把自己与其他文化截然区分的个性。但它总归受到了外部接触的影响。这样的接触，可能要么是和平的，要么是武力的，它们在相遇中充满着不同程度的接受。通过这些接触，就发生了文化的传播过程。地理对文化的发展也产生了深刻影响，虽然我们不应过分夸大它的重要性。当人类获得了技术手段和对土地的驾御时，环境的影响就会变得不甚明显。

 

　The domestication of animals and cereals,    for example, took place in both the Old and New Worlds, but the animals and grains were different because of dissimilar ecological factors. Invention is another important source of culture change, although it is not clear to what extent external physical contact is required in the process of invention. However,

men and women in different times and places have reached similar solutions to the challenges posed by their respective environment--resulting in the phenomenon known as parallel invention. 

 

    举例说，在旧世界和新世界都发生了动物饲养和谷物种植，但由于不同的生态因素，这些动物和谷物有所不同。发明是文化变化的另一重要源泉，虽然还不清楚在发明的过程中需要有多大程度的外部物质接触。但是，不同时代和不同地方的男女在应付各自环境带来的挑战时发现了相似的解决办法──从而导致所谓的平行发明现象。

  

　Some parts of culture pattern change more rapidly than others, so that one institution sometimes becomes outmoded in relation to others in a single society. When different parts of a society fail to mesh harmoniously, the condition is often called culture lag.  Numerous examples of this lag could be cited: the exploitation of child laborers during the nineteenth century, the failure to allow women to vote until the twentieth century, and the tragedy of hunger in the midst of plenty.

 

文化模式的某些部分比其他部分变化得更快。 因此在某个单独的社会中，一种制度与其他制度发生关系时，有时就显得过时。当社会中不同的部分无法和谐地配合时，就会出现常说的文化迟滞状况。可以举出不少这种迟滞的例子：19世纪时对童工的剥削；20世纪以前，妇女未能争得选举权，还有“朱门酒肉臭，路有冻死骨”式的悲剧。

 

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