【澳】涉猿辱骂：种族主义思想简史 [美国媒体]

Most us know that calling someone an ape isracist, but few of us understand why apes are associated in the Europeanimagination with indigenous people and, indeed, people of African descent.

我们中的大部分人都知道，管别人叫猿是种族主义的，但鲜少有人明白为什么在欧洲人的想象中，猿是和土着人以及非洲裔联系在一起的。

To understand the power and scope of theape insult, we need a dose of history. When I was an undergraduate atuniversity, I learnt about racism and colonialism, particularly the influenceof Charles Darwin (1809-1882), whose ideas seemed to make racism nastier.

为了弄懂涉猿辱骂的力量和范围，我们需要服用一剂历史的药水。当我还是一名在校大学生的时候，我了解到了种族主义和殖民主义，尤其是查理·达尔文（1809-1882）带来的影响，他的思想似乎使种族主义变得更恶心了。



It suggested that the races had becomeseparate species, and that Africans, in particular, were far closer inevolutionary terms to the great apes than were, say, Europeans.

它指出各种族已经变成了独立的物种，还指出特别是非洲人，从演化的角度看，远比譬如说欧洲人更接近巨猿。

And yet, during the same period, there wasalways a stream of evolutionary science that rejected this model. It emphasisedthe deep similarities between different races, and that differences inbehaviour were the product of culture not biology.

然而在同一时期中，拒斥这个模型的进化科学一直都存在。它强调种族之间深刻的相似性，以及是文化而非生物原因造成了其行为上的差异。

The horrors of Nazism put paid tomainstream science’s dalliance with biological racism. Adolf Hitler’s genocide,willingly supported by German scientists and doctors, showed where themisapplication of science might end up.

纳粹主义的恐怖，彻底终结了主流科学和生物学种族主义的勾勾搭搭。德国科学家和医生们自愿支持的阿道夫·希特勒的种族灭绝，展示出了滥用科学可能造成的后果。

This left scientific racism in the hands offar-right groups who were only too willing to ignore the findings of post-warevolutionary biology in favour of its pre-war variants.

这就放任了科学种族主义落入极右翼组织之手，他们可是非常乐意去无视战后进化生物学的发现，为的是支持那些发现的战前变种。



In the mid-1700s, Comte de Buffon suggestedthat all species of animals were descended from a small number ofspontaneously-generated types. Wikimedia Commons

（图解：18世纪中期，布丰伯爵主张所有的动物物种都起源于少量自发生成的品种）

Clearly, evolutionary thinking has hadsomething to do with the longevity of the ape insult. But the Europeanassociation of apes with Africans has a much longer cultural and scientificpedigree.

很显然，进化论思想已然和涉猿辱骂的经久不衰扯上了关系。但是欧洲人把猿和非洲人联系在一起有着更悠久的文化和科学渊源。

In the 18th century, a new way of thinking aboutspecies emerged. Previously the vast majority of Europeans believed that Godhad created species (including man), and these species were immutable.

18世纪的时候，针对物种涌现出一种新的思维方式。从前，绝大多数的欧洲人相信是上帝创造额万物（包括人类），而且这些物种是永远不变的。

Many believed in the unity of the humanspecies, but some thought that God had created separate human species. In thisschema, white Europeans were described as closest to the angels, while blackAfricans and Aborigines were closest to the apes.

很多人相信各人种间的团结，但另一些人认为上帝造出的是互相独立的人种。在这套说法中，欧洲的白人被刻画为最接近天使，同时非洲黑人和土着人最接近猿。



In Camper’s view, monkeys, the apes andorangutans, were all degenerated versions of original man. Then, in 1809,Darwin’s intellectual forebear, Lamarck (Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet,Chier de Lamarck, 1744-1829) proposed a model of evolution that saw allorganisms as descended from a single point of spontaneous creation.

在坎普眼中，猴子、猿和土着人，都是最初人类的退化版本。然后在1809年，达尔文智慧上的先行者拉马克（Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chier de Lamarck,1744-1829）提出了一个进化模型，认为所有的生物体都起源于一个单一的自发创生点。

Worms evolved into fish, fish into mammals,and mammals into men. This happened not through Darwinian selection but throughan inner vital force driving simple organisms to become more complex, workingin combination with the influence of the environment.

蠕虫进化成鱼，鱼进化成哺乳动物，哺乳动物进化成人。这个过程的发生不是经由达尔文学说中的选择，而是通过一种结合了环境影响的内在生命力的作用，去驱使简单的生物体变得更复杂。

In this view, humans didn’t share a commonancestry with apes; they were directly descended from them. And Africans thenbecame the link between monkeys and Europeans. The popular image commonlyassociated with Darwinian evolution of the staged transformation of ape intoman should more properly be called Lamarckian.

在这种视角下，人类并不和猿共享一位共同的祖先；他们（它们）是直接源自各自的祖先的。非洲人也就因此成为了猴子和欧洲人间的中间环节。那张广为流传和达尔文进化论有关的从猿到人渐次转化的图片，应当被更恰当地称为拉马克的进化论。

The power of racism

种族主义的力量



Clearly, the education system doesn’t doenough to educate us about the science or history of man. Because if it did, wewould see the disappearance of the ape insult.

很显然，这个教育体制在教授我们人类科学或人类历史方面，做得还很不够。因为如果做足了，我们就会看到涉猿辱骂的消失。

1、This was a veryinteresting article and nice summary of the recent history of scientificracism. But I did find the conclusion very peculiar in light for the historypresented.

这是一篇非常有意思的文章，对近代科学种族主义的历史作了很好的总结。但我认为，鉴于那些所呈现出的历史，得出的结论很是奇怪。

The conclusion that with more/bettereducation "we would see the disappearance of the ape insult" is notsupported by the preceding history. On the contrary, with more education andmore precise scientific models we have been able to fine tune our discriminatoryand prejudicial activities.

结论说的是，给予更多更好的教育，“我们就会看到涉猿辱骂的消失”，之前的那些历史无法支持这个结论。恰恰相反，更多的教育和更精准的科学模型只会让我们对自己的歧视行为和偏见行为作出微调。



2、a very timely andwelcome article. Thank you. I have a small, but I think important criticism. Inthe following quote you say: "there was always a stream of evolutionaryscience that rejected this model. It emphasised the deep similarities between differentraces, and that differences in behaviour were the product of culture notbiology". I think it's worth emphasising that there is no scientific basisto "race"; it is something that humans have invented (it is implicitin your article but could have been made more emphatic). Indeed, there is onlyone human species, with people of any skin colour etc. able to reproduce withothers. In short, humanity exhibits diverse features in terms of bodyappearance, which are based on genetic inheritance, but the idea of"racial" (as opposed to ethnic and other social) groups are based onflawed assumptions about the way in which biology is assumed to"produce" people in socio-cultural terms. Humanity is not the sumtotal of different "races". Races are a myth. The focus shouldinstead be on ethnocultural identities and groups, which there are varied typesof appearance, genetic attributes and so on. When an African-American man haschildren with a Native-American woman, and their offspring in turn producechildren with partners from Asia and England, the genetic and ethnoculturaldiversity of that family is complex. There is no need for "races"here. And deciding that race is (or should be) unimportant is one step towardseroding racism and racialisation.

一篇非常及时且受欢迎的文章。感谢你。我想提出一点小小的但我认为很重要的批评。你在文中说到，“拒斥这个模型的进化科学一直都存在。它强调种族之间深刻的相似性，以及是文化而非生物原因造成了其行为上的差异。”我认为值得强调的是：“种族”这个东西是不存在科学依据的，是人类自己发明出来的（你的文章暗示了这点，但本可以更着重强调）。确实只存在一个人种，涵盖任何一种肤色、能与其他人繁殖的人。简单说，人类以体貌的形式展现出各种各样的特征，这是基于基因的传承，但“（种）族”群体（与（民）族群体、社会群体相反）的概念基于的是有瑕疵的假设，即在社会文化角度假定生物学能“造出”人来。人类并非不同“种族”的总和。种族只是个虚构的神话。聚焦点反而应该放在民族文化身份认同和民族文化群体，这里面存在不同类型的外貌、遗传特性等等。当一个非洲裔美国人和一个美洲原住民生下孩子，而他们的子孙后代轮流和来自亚洲和英国的伴侣生下孩子，这个家族的遗传多样性和民族文化多样性便很复杂了。没有必要在这里搞出一个“种族”来。而且判定种族为（或应该是）不重要，便是向削弱种族主义和种族化迈进了一步。

（回复1）That's a great point Daryl. I've always wondered why one superficialcharacteristic such as skin colour has been given such a great importance whenother superficial characteristics like hair or eye colour have not.

这是一个很棒的观点。我一直都很好奇为什么某个外表特征比如肤色，一直都被赋予了如此这般的重要性，而其他诸如发色或眼睛颜色的外表特征没有这种待遇。

（回复2）Correct. I grew up with theTlingit tribe in Alaska and their physical differences with Eskimos wereimportant to them. As were their fishingand hunting practices, etc.

没错。我是和阿拉斯加的特林吉特部落一起长大的，他们在体貌特征上和爱斯基摩的不同对他们来说非常重要。他们在渔猎等方面的做法也是一样。



5、Less racism wouldnot result from a wider public knowledge of the history of racist ideas andtheir appropriation of the theory of evolution.

公众中有更多的人了解了种族主义思想的历史，以及他们对进化论的套用，并不会导致种族主义的减少。

Other scientists have shown that aphenomenon called "confirmation bias" is pretty much hardwired intohuman cognition. Individuals who already have strongly negative emotionalassociations with physiognomic difference will inevitably find justificationfor their racist beliefs in the very idea of evolution.

另有一些科学家已经发现了一种称为“确认偏误”的现象，在人类认知中几乎是根深蒂固的。那些对于长相差异已然抱有强烈的负面情绪联想的个体，会不可避免地从进化论思想中为他们的种族主义信仰找到借口。



In my neck of the jungle its being called a"human" that is the mortal insult.

在我的丛林里，被称为“人类”才是致命的侮辱。