Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

the main complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible.

我們才能明白人類生活中主要的復雜現象。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

The study of custom can be profitable only after certain preliminary propositions have been accepted,

只有在某些基本的主張被接受下來、同時有些主張被激烈反對時，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

and some of these propositions have been violently opposed.

對風俗的研究才是全面的，才會有收獲。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

In the first place, any scientific study requires that there be no preferential weighting of one or another of the items in the series it selects for its consideration.

首先，任何科學研究都要求人們對可供考慮的諸多因素不能厚此薄彼，偏向某一方面。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

In all the less controversial fields, like the study of cacti or termites or the nature of nebulae,

在一切爭議較小的領域里，如對仙人掌、白蟻或星云性質的研究，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

the necessary method of study is to group the relevant material and to take note of all possible variant forms and conditions.

應采取的研究方法是，把有關各方面的材料匯集起來，同時注意任何可能出現的異常情況和條件。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

In this way, we have learned all that we know of the laws of astronomy,

例如，用這種方法，我們完全掌握了天文學的規律。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

or of the habits of the social insects, let us say.

和昆蟲群居的習性

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

It is only in the study of man himself that the major social sciences have substituted the study of one local variation, that of Western civilization.

只是在對人類自身的研究中，各主要的社會學科才用對一個局部地區各種情況的研究（如對西方文明的研究）來代替對全人類的研究。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

Anthropology was by definition impossible,

那么人類學按其定義來說就無法存在。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

as long as these distinctions between ourselves and the primitive,

只要我們同原始人，我們同野蠻人，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

ourselves and the barbarian, ourselves and the pagan, held sway over people's minds.

我們同異教徒之間存在的區別在人的思想中占主導地位，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

It was necessary first to arrive at that degree of sophistication where we no longer set our own belief against ourneighbour's superstition.

不用自己的信仰去反對我們鄰居的迷信。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

It was necessary to recognize that these institutions which are based on the same premises,

必須認識到，這些建立在相同前提基礎上的風俗，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

let us say the supernatural, must be considered together, our own among the rest.

暫且可以說是超自然的東西，必須放在一起加以考慮，我們自己的風俗和其他民族的風俗都在其中。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

In man's early days, competition with other creatures must have been critical.

在人類早期，人類與其他生物的競爭一定是必不可少的。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

But this phase of our development is now finished.

但這個發展階段已經結束。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Indeed, we lack practice and experience nowadays in dealing with primitive conditions.

確實，我們今天缺乏對付原始環境的實踐和經驗。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

I am sure that, without modern weapons,

我斷定，如果沒有現代化的武器，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

I would make a very poor show of disputing the ownership of a cave with a bear,

要我和一只熊去爭洞穴，我會出洋相的；

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

and in this I do not think that I stand alone.

我也相信，出洋相者并非我一人。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

The last creature to compete with man was the mosquito.

能與人競爭的生物最后只有蚊子了，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

But even the mosquito has been subdued by attention to drainage and by chemical sprays.

然而即使蚊子，也由于我們注意清理污水和噴灑化學藥品而被制服了。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Competition between ourselves, person against person, community against community,

然而人類之間的競爭，人與人，團體與團體，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

still persists, however; and it is as fierce as it ever was.

依然在進行著，而且和以前一樣激烈。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

But the competition of man against man is not the simple process envisioned in biology.

但是，人與人的競爭并不像生物學中想像的那樣是一個簡單過程。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

It is not a simple competition for a fixed amount of food determined by the physical environment,

它已不是為了爭得物質環境所決定的有限食物而進行的簡單競爭了，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

because the environment that determines our evolution is no longer essentially physical.

因為決定我們進化環境的主要方面已不再是物質。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Our environment is chiefly conditoned by the things we believe.

我們的環境由我們信仰的東西所決定。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Morocco and California are bits of the Earth in very similar latitudes,

摩洛哥和加利福尼亞是地球上緯度極其相似的兩個地方，