--- url: https://gaojian.site/new-concept/book-4/44-patterns-of-culture.md description: 新概念英语第四册：Patterns of Culture。精读、词块回忆、双向译练、句法、逻辑与FSRS复习。 --- # 44 · 文化的模式 ### 第1段 Anthropology is the study of human beings as creatures of society. It fastens its attention upon those physical characteristics and industrial techniques, those conventions and values, which distinguish one community from all others that belong to a different tradition. The distinguishing mark of anthropology among the social sciences is that it includes for serious study other societies than our own.… Now custom has not commonly been regarded as a subject of any great moment. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behaviour at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behaviour more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions no matter how aberrant. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief, and the very great varieties it may manifest. No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behaviour of the individual, as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the vernacular of his family. When one seriously studies social orders that have had the opportunity to develop autonomously, the figure becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth, the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behaviour. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities. Every child that is born into his group will share them with him, and no child born into one on the opposite side of the globe can ever achieve the thousandth part. There is no social problem it is more incumbent upon us to understand than this of the role of custom. Until we are intelligent as to its laws and varieties, the main complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible. The study of custom can be profitable only after certain preliminary propositions have been accepted, and some of these propositions have been violently opposed. 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. In all the less controversial fields like the study of cacti or termites or the nature of nebulae, the necessary method of study is to group the relevant material and to take note of all possible variant forms and conditions. In this way we have learned all that we know of the laws of astronomy, or of the habits of the social insects, let us say. 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. Anthropology was by definition impossible as long as these distinctions between ourselves and the primitive, ourselves and the barbarian, ourselves and the pagan, held sway over people's minds. It was necessary first to arrive at that degree of sophistication where we no longer set our own belief over against our neighbour's superstition. It was necessary to recognize that these institutions which are based on the same premises, let us say the supernatural, must be considered together, our own among the rest. 中文理解：人类学研究的是作为社会成员的人。它关注不同群体在身体特征、生产技术、习俗和价值观上的差异；正是这些差异，使一个群体有别于其他传统中的群体。 人类学与其他社会科学的一个显著区别，是它把我们自身社会以外的其他社会，也纳入严肃研究的范围。…… 人们通常并不认为习俗是什么特别重要的研究对象。我们觉得，自己大脑内部的运作才格外值得探究；至于习俗，总觉得不过是最平常的行为罢了。事实却恰恰相反。放眼世界，传统习俗包含着数量庞大、细致入微的行为，比任何个人凭一己之力形成的行为都更加惊人，无论这个人多么离经叛道。不过，这还只是问题中相当次要的一面。真正重要的是，习俗对人的经历和信念起着支配作用，而且呈现出的形式极其多样。 没有人能以毫无成见的眼光看世界。一个人眼中的世界，早已由特定的习俗、制度和思维方式筛选、整理过。即使进行哲学探索，他也无法完全摆脱这些固有模式；就连他判断真伪的观念，仍然离不开自己所承袭的习俗。约翰·杜威曾郑重地说：习俗塑造个人行为的力量，与个人改变传统习俗的力量相比，就好比母语的全部词汇，与他幼年牙牙学语时说出、后来被家人沿用的那几个词相比。认真研究过那些有机会自主发展的社会秩序，就会发现，这个比喻不过是对事实准确而平实的描述。一个人的一生，首先就是不断适应所在群体世代相传的模式和准则。从出生那一刻起，身边的习俗就在塑造他的经历和行为。等到会说话时，他已是自己文化塑造的小小产物；等到长大、能够参与社会活动时，这个群体的习惯便成了他的习惯，信念便成了他的信念，群体认为不可能的事，他也认为不可能。出生在同一群体的每个孩子，都会与他共享这些东西；而出生在地球另一边某个群体的孩子，连其中的千分之一也未必能拥有。没有哪一个社会问题，比习俗的作用更值得我们认真理解。在弄清习俗的规律和多样性以前，人类生活中那些主要的复杂事实，仍会让我们难以理解。 要让习俗研究取得成果，必须先接受一些基本前提，而其中有些前提曾遭到激烈反对。首先，任何科学研究都要求：对所选取的一系列研究对象，不能预先偏重其中某一项。在仙人掌、白蚁或星云性质等争议较少的研究领域，必要的方法是把相关材料归类，并留意所有可能的变异形式及其条件。比如，我们对天文学规律和群居昆虫习性的了解，都是这样获得的。唯独在研究人类自身时，主要的社会科学却用一种局部形态——西方文明——的研究，代替了对整体的研究。 只要“我们与原始人”“我们与野蛮人”“我们与异教徒”这类区分还支配着人们的头脑，严格说来，人类学就不可能成立。人们必须先有足够成熟的认识，不再把自己的观念称为“信仰”，却把邻人的观念贬作“迷信”。我们必须承认：凡是建立在相同前提——例如超自然观念——之上的制度，都应放在一起考察，我们自己的制度也不例外。 * **fastens its attention upon**：把注意力集中于；fasten attention较书面，日常focus on更直接。 * **physical characteristics**：身体特征；undefined * **conventions and values**：习俗与价值观；undefined * **distinguish one community**：区分一个群体；from引出对照项；不要遗漏区分的两端。 * **of any great moment**：有什么重大意义；较旧且正式，此处moment是重要性不是一瞬间。 * **the other way around**：恰好相反；可说方向或因果解释倒过来，不只是另一条路。 * **no matter how**：无论多么；不管怎样；表示程度怎样都不改变后面的情况，后面仍需完整说明。 * **of first-rate importance**：头等重要；undefined * **predominant role**：主导作用；先说明主导哪个过程，别泛说决定一切。 * **pristine eyes**：不带成见的眼光；undefined * **a definite set of**：特定的一套；set把若干相关要素视作整体，不是每条都相同。 * **have reference to**：与……有关；较正式，可用relate to；不是必须引用文献。 * **in all seriousness**：郑重其事地；all加强真诚认真，不是总数量。 * **first and foremost**：首先且最重要的是；强调优先级，不是两个独立时间阶段。 * **an accommodation to**：对……的适应；这里是适应，不是旅馆住宿。 * **By the time**：到……的时候；先确定参照点，再看另一件事到那时已完成还是仍在持续。 * **take part in**：参加；in后接活动；不是take part of。 * **remain unintelligible**：仍无法理解；remain后直接接状态，不需再加be。 * **preliminary propositions**：基本前提命题；前提需说清，不能把它藏成不言自明的结论。 * **preferential weighting**：带偏向的重视；undefined * **take note of**：注意并记录；不是单纯照抄笔记，而是留意有意义的差异。 * **local variation**：局部的一种形态；undefined * **held sway over**：支配着；较书面，可用dominate或strongly influence。 * **set our own belief over against**：把自身信仰与……对立；undefined * **are based on**：以……为基础；be based on + 依据；base A on B 为主动。 #### Anthropology is the study of human beings as creatures of society. 简单句，主系表结构. 本句是全书的开篇，介绍了人类学的研究对象，这句话对于本文而言，也交代了学科基础. 故此处额外收录进来，以利于读者学习. #### It fastens its attention upon those physical characteristics and industrial techniques, those conventions and values, which distinguish one community from all others that belong to a different tradition. 复合句，主句为主谓宾结构，后面一长串后置定语修饰 attention，而 which 引导的定语从句中，还包含一个 that 引导的定语从句，均为主谓宾结构. 人类学对于社群的区分，就不是从地理上来看待了. #### The distinguishing mark of anthropology among the social sciences is that it includes for serious study other societies than our own.… 复合句，主系+表语从句结构. 本句是全书第二段首句，对于的理解比较关键，故节录进来. 这就 for serious study 只能理解成状语或者插入语，否则表语从句不 通. #### Now custom has not commonly been regarded as a subject of any great moment. 简单句，主谓宾+宾补结构. 本句属于原著的第三段，句首 now 在课文中删掉了，此处予以补上，因为没有收录的第二段讲了人类学的研究对象不以自己所处的社会为准，而是要考虑所有人类社会的情况，任何民族的习俗在个体生活中所起的作用都需要予以考虑. 然后话锋一转，本句强调，目前人类学还处于发展阶段，其研究对象—— 习俗，也一直不受关注. custom 译为习俗则依据中国大陆人类学界的主流，参考了北京大学哲学系已故教授王炜的翻译. #### The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behaviour at its most commonplace. 并列句，以 but 分为前后两句，前句为主系表+表语补语结构，其中表语提前了. 后句为主系表结构，中间有一个插入语，为主谓宾结构. #### As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. 简单句，主系表结构. 完全不是上一句所说的那么回事，习俗的研究也很重要. #### Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behaviour more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions no matter how aberrant. 复合句，主句主系表结构，后面 more…actions 为后置定语，actions 后面的逗号，原著中没有，此处删除. 这个后置定语中包含了一个 than 引导的比较状语从句，该从句为主谓宾结构，属于成分中的细分. 最后是一个让步状语，这句有所省略，no matter they may be how aberrant，they 指 individual actions. #### Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. 简单句，主系表结构. that 指上句传统习俗的琐细行为，跟下文所述习俗所起的作用和多样的展现形式相比，其构成就不那么重要了. matter 指 custom. #### The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief, and the very great varieties it may manifest. 并列复合句，以 and 连接，前后均为主系表结构跟定语从句修饰表语，定语从句均为主谓结构. #### No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. 简单句，主谓宾结构，该句为本段的主旨，全段对于人类受社会化的影响作了说明，这样一来，此处的 pristine 相对于被社会化而言，应取“原始的”解释. #### He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. 简单句，主谓宾+宾补结构：He sees it edited…，it 指上句 the world，edited…是对所见世界的补充说明，不是系动词后的表语。 这里指人们所看到的世界受到了习俗等社会建构的概念之影响. he 在这里指代人们，he 这个词，在后来的社会学、人类学，甚至社会科学的著作中，逐渐采用 she 或 they 来取代，受西方 feminism，gender equality 观念之影响；社会学名著 Sociological Imagination 在再版时，编辑亦专门做了附注，表明受成书时代所限，用了 he/his/him. #### Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. 并列句，均为主谓宾结构. 本句 go behind 及 get behind 变体，追究根源，摸底，而不是 go beyond，不能翻译成超越，因为本句是跟前两句一起，进一步说明我们哪怕是在大脑中进行思想实验，也没办法脱离社会上陈规老套的习俗之影响，看到原始的世界. 本句为 probings，该用法较为学术，生活中 probing 要么作为 probe 的 v-ing 形式，要么作形容词，探索性的. #### John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behaviour of the individual, as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the vernacular of his family. 复合句，主句为主谓+宾语从句结构，that 引导的宾语从句为主系表结构. in which 引导的定语从句修饰 any way，为主谓宾结构；而最后 that 引导的定语从句修饰 baby talk，亦为主谓宾结构. 原著中 as 之前没有逗号，但加上比较易于断句，予以保留，另外有 over 一词在本句两个 against 之前，as over against any way 和 mother tongue over against those. 因 over against 取 in contrast with 之意，且强调两者的不同，故跟从原著，予以补回. 如果只是单独一个 against，则偏向于直接将两个事情对比，而不是强调两者的不同. 杜威(1859-1952)，美国著名哲学家和教育家. #### When one seriously studies social orders that have had the opportunity to develop autonomously, the figure becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. 复合句，主句为主系表结构，句首有一个 when 引导的时间状语从句，该从句为主谓宾结构，其中宾语由 that 引导的定语从句修饰，也是主谓宾结构. 教材中，when 引导的时间状语从句为 one seriously studies the social orders. 原著中没有定冠词 the，为 studies social orders，因为 social orders 为复数，如加定冠词 the 在可数名词复数前，表示某类人的总称或该类人中任意一位，所以此处跟从原著删去. 对于本句主句中 figure 的理解，算是一个难点，一群老外也被弄得晕头转向，甚至有人直接承认看不懂这句话想表达的意思.社科著作的阅读之所以晦涩，有时需要有一定的学术背景做基础. 此句是承接下文的，跟上句杜威的结论已是两个句子了. 下文讲个人生活史首要在于适应其社区的模式和标准，对于人类学中关于习俗的研究，人们就算有机会遇到自发发展的社会秩序，其研究所得的数据也无非就是一些精确的、实事求是的观察结果而已. the figure represents the figure of the study of the social orders. #### The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. 简单句，主系表结构，原文 life history 有连字符，为 life-history. #### From the moment of his birth, the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behaviour. 复合句，主谓宾结构，主语由定语从句修饰，定语从句为主谓结构. 本句的 custom 即上句所讲 community 的习俗，这里的 community 所翻译过来的社区，偏向于社群区域之意，不要理解成居委会范围之类的国内意义了. #### By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities. \[1]参见 https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/the-figure-becomes-no-more-than-an-exact-and-matter-of-fact.2866914/ his habits… 并列复合句，and 连接前后两个 by the time 引导的时间状语从句和其主句，主句均为主系表结构. 本句后面的省略表达，省略了系动词，以免啰嗦. #### Every child that is born into his group will share them with him, and no child born into one on the opposite side of the globe can ever achieve the thousandth part. 并列复合句，and 连接前后两句，均为主谓宾结构. #### There is no social problem it is more incumbent upon us to understand than this of the role of custom. 复合句，there be 句型，有一个定语从句修饰 social problem，本句意思在于，上文所述社区的习俗对我们个人生活史的塑造是如此的重要，那么与别的社会问题相比，我们感到有责任去理解习俗的作用. #### Until we are intelligent as to its laws and varieties, the main complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible. 复合句，主句为主系表结构. until 引导的时间状语从句也是主系表结构. #### The study of custom can be profitable only after certain preliminary propositions have been accepted, and some of these propositions have been violently opposed. 并列复合句，and 连接前后两句，前句为主系表结构，外加一个 only…accepted 的时间状语从句，为主谓结构；后句为主谓结构，补充解释这些先决条件中，有部分被强烈反对了. 一件事情做出来有意义的前提条件只在于某些先决条件被接受了，而不在于是否有一部分被反对了，如果一个事情全是赞同，就做不成了吗？ 这里不建议按照课文翻译所理解成的“只有在…同时有些主张被激烈反对时，对风俗的研究才是全面的，才会有收获”. 只有理解错了，才需要再额外自行加一个“才是全面的”来弥补理解的错误，文中哪个词是“全面的”？ #### The study of custom can be profitable only after certain preliminary propositions have been accepted, and some of these propositions have been violently opposed. 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. 复合句，主句为主谓+宾语从句结构，从句为 there be 句型，里面有一个 it 引导的定语从句修饰 items，为主谓结构. #### In all the less controversial fields like the study of cacti or termites or the nature of nebulae, the necessary method of study is to group the relevant material and to take note of all possible variant forms and conditions. 简单句，主系表结构，不定式短语作表语. like 前原著没有逗号，这里予以删除. 作者先以争议比较小的学科来举例，以作为其反对社会科学可以以偏概全的论据. #### In this way we have learned all that we know of the laws of astronomy, or of the habits of the social insects, let us say. 复合句，主句为主谓宾结构，后面 that 引导的定语从句修饰 all，定语从句为并列结构，主谓宾结构，in this way 后面，原著也没有逗号，这里予以删除，or 后面的 of 省略了 know. #### 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. 强调句，主句为主谓宾结构，强调了状语，只有在对人类自身的研究之中，主要的社会科学都以偏概全. 被省略的原著第二段第一句已直接写明了人类学和社会科学的不同之处，人类学对于每一个社会的习俗，均认为同样重要，不能以某一种当地的情况代替整个区域的情况，也不能代替另一个区域的情况. 而且作者苦口婆心讲了其它没有什么争议的学科都需要全面研究，为什么到了人类自身，这些主要的社会科学，比如哲学，却可以以偏概全呢. 所以作者完全是在反对这个观点. #### Anthropology was by definition impossible as long as these distinctions between ourselves and the primitive, ourselves and the barbarian, ourselves and the pagan, held sway over people's minds. 复合句，主系表结构，后跟了一个 as long as 引导的条件状语从句，主谓宾结构. 本句更直接点明，我们跟那些野蛮人、原始人和异教徒，并没有什么不同，都是人类学中同样重要的研究对象，如果不承认这点，人类学绝无可能. impossible 后面，原著没有逗号，此处予以删除. #### It was necessary first to arrive at that degree of sophistication where we no longer set our own belief over against our neighbour's superstition. 复合句，主句为主系表结构，to arrive 词组作真正的主语，后面跟一个 where 引导的定语从句，修饰这一成熟程度，即不再预先把本群体的“信仰”与他人的“迷信”作高下之分。这里讨论的是研究时的一致标准，不等于一概禁止质疑或批评别人的观点。 迷信一词见，如果忘了，要考虑制定复习计 #### It was necessary to recognize that these institutions which are based on the same premises, let us say the supernatural, must be considered together, our own among the rest. 复合句，主句为主系表结构，不定式 to recognize 作真正的主语，该主语中包含一个 that 引导的宾语从句，作 recognize 的逻辑宾语，因为不定式在这里不作谓语. 宾语从句为主谓结构，有一个 which 引导的定语从句修饰该宾语从句的主语 these institutions，定语从句为主谓宾结构. our own 和 the rest 后面省略了 institutions，这个词在社会学、人类学领域，指社会制度. 本句对于本段的观点做了行动指南，我们一方面不能厚此薄彼，所有人类社会都很重要，而且不存在以偏概全，所以在考虑时，全都要包括进去. ## 学完这一课 列出比较维度，再明确要区别哪两类群体。 [Nce · 本册复习台](/new-concept/book-4/review) · [三册选择地图](/new-concept/) *译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第197—204页，2022年2月第2版。*