为什么女人受到巫术指控?中国农村研究提供了线索。 [美国媒体]

Why are women accused of witchcraft? Study in rural China gives clue

为什么女人受到巫术指控?中国农村研究提供了线索。



From medi witch hunts in Europe to contemporary “witch doctors” in Tanzania, belief in witchcraft has existed across human societies throughout history. Anthropologists have long been fascinated by the phenomenon, but have struggled to study it with quantitative methods – our understanding of how and why it arises is therefore poor.

从欧洲中世纪的猎杀女巫到当代的坦桑尼亚“巫医”，历史上人类社会一直相信巫术的存在。长期以来，人类学家对这一现象很着迷，但却很难用定量的方法来研究——我们对巫术为何产生，为什么产生，所知甚少。

But a study we conducted of one Chinese region provided an opportunity to test the most common hypothesis – that witchcraft accusations act as punishment for those who do not cooperate with local norms. According to this theory, witch tags mark supposedly untrustworthy individuals and encourage others to conform out of fear of being labelled. However, some empirical studies have shown that witch labelling instead undermines trust and social cohesion in a society.

但我们在中国地区进行的研究，为我们检验巫术指控是对那些不守当地社会规矩的人的惩罚，这一最常见的假设提供了机会。根据这一理论，那些被贴上巫婆标签的，应该是不值得信任的人，希望其他人出于恐怖，避免被贴上标签。然而，一些实证研究表明，巫婆的标签却会破坏社会信任和社会凝聚力。

Our study is based on 800 households in five villages in south-western China. We examined the social behaviour of those who were labelled with a “witch” tag, and compared it with those who were not. The work, published in Nature Human Behaviour, was the basis of a long-term collaboration between scientists from University College London, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Lanzhou University.

我们的研究对象是中国西南部地区五个村庄的800户家庭。研究那些被贴上“女巫”标签的社会行为，并与那些没有被贴上“标签的人进行了比较。这项研究发表在《自然人类行为》杂志上，是伦敦大学学院、北京中国科学院和兰州大学的科学家长期合作研究的基础结论。

To determine the social networks and cooperation between households, we conducted house-to-house surveys, asking who had children, marriages and partnerships with whom. We also collected data on gift-giving, and on working groups on farms during harvest and planting seasons to see who was helping other households with their farming. All these measures gave rise to four social networks between households based on kinship, reproductive partners, gifts exchanged or farm work.

为了确定家庭之间的社会网络和合作关系，我们挨家挨户进行调查，询问生育情况，婚姻状况和家庭关系。我们还收集了家庭间互赠礼物数据，以及在收获季节和种植季节的家庭间协作，看看谁在帮助别的家庭耕种。根据这些研究，我们总结出家庭之间的四种社交网络：亲属关系、配偶关系、互赠礼物或农务协作。

Magic poison

巫术毒药

While in the area, we were occasionally warned not to eat in certain households, as women there were believed to be supernatural “poison givers”. The label they used – “zhu” or “zhubo” – is sometimes also translated as “witch”. It was common knowledge which homes were so labelled and we were surprised to find it accounted for 13% of the households.

在这，偶尔会有人警告我们不要吃某些家庭给的东西，因为他们认为这些女性是具有超能力的“下毒者”。她们被称为“祝”或“祝卜”——也就是所谓的“女巫”。大家都知道哪家被贴上了这个标签，我们惊讶地发现有13%的家庭被贴上了标签。

The tag was one of the strongest predictors of assortment on social networks. Those from tagged households rarely had children or partnerships with those from untagged households, nor did they exchange gifts or work on each others’ farms very often. However, tagged households were helping each other and reproducing with each other, which mitigated the costs of exclusion from mainstream social networks.

这个标签曾经是社会网络上最强大的分类指示器之一。那些被标记的家庭一般都没有孩子，与没有表姐的家庭很少有互动与合作，也很少有互赠礼物和在农务活方面互相帮忙。然而，被标记家庭之间却互相帮助，通婚，这样就减轻了被排除在主流社交网络之外的成本。

We also played an “economic game” in the villages, where each person was given a small sum of money and asked to donate any proportion of it they wished to the village (to be divided among all the players). We found no evidence that those tagged as “witches” were any less cooperative in this game than any others.

我们还在村子里进行了一场“经济游戏”，我们给每个人一小笔钱，并要求把他们按照自己的意愿给村子捐一部分钱(分给所有的村民)。没有任何证据表明被标记为“女巫”的人在游戏中比其他的人更不合作。

In fact, we found that labelled households were very similar to other households, except the tagged households were more likely to be headed by women and were actually slightly wealthier than average.

事实上，我们发现，被贴上标签的家庭与其他家庭非常相似，除了被标记的家庭更有可能由女性做主，而且也比一般家庭生活条件好点。

We also discovered that the process of acquiring the label was opaque. Even victims often did not know who had started a rumour about them, they may just begin to notice others avoiding them. Some sources report such tags running in the family, with daughters inheriting the status from their mothers. Hence the origin of the slur could have occurred long ago.

我们还发现，被贴标签的过程并不透明。即使是受害者也常常不知道是谁散布的谣言，她们可能只是开始注意到其他人在可以回避她们。有些消息报道称，这些标签在那些女儿继承母亲地位的家庭。因此，诋毁的源头可能要追溯到很久以前。

Interpreting the results

调查结果解读

Anthropologists who believe that the fear of loss of reputation (by witch labelling or other reasons) can be a huge driver of cooperation in the wider community often back their arguments with laboratory experiments using economic games. Such experiments also show that those who punish transgressors can gain reputational benefits themselves.

人类学家认为，害怕失去名誉(巫师标签或其他原因)，是在更广泛的社区进行合作的巨大推动力，人类学家往往通过经济学游戏的实验来支持他们的观点。这些实验也表明，那些惩罚违规者的人也能获得声誉。

However real world examples of this are hard to come by. Most studies of witchcraft are not quantitative and do not examine social networks as we have done. While this study suggests there is no evidence that those labelled with this harmful tag were uncooperative, it does not fully explain why such accusations stick in some cases and not in others.

然而，要在现实世界找到这样的例子很难。大多数关于巫术的研究都不是定量的，也不会像我们这样调查社交网络。虽然这项研究表明，没有证据表明那些带有有害标签的人不合作，但却无法解释为什么这些人会被贴上标签，而其他人却没有。

Our conclusion is that witch accusation has evolved from competition between households. Labelling may have become a way for people to get ahead of their rivals and gain a competitive advantage in reproduction or resources. However, the sources of competition may be different in different cases.

我们的结论是，巫婆指控是由家庭之间的竞争演变而来的。标签可能是人们在繁衍生息、或者获得资源方面为了超越竞争对手或者取得竞争优势的一种方式。然而，在不同的情况下，竞争的原因可能不同。



There are other explanations that may apply too. All around the world conceptions of witchcraft share many common features. For example, middle aged women are the most common victims, and accusations of poisoning are frequently involved. But there are also many differences. Another idea for the origins of witchcraft denunciations is that they are common when patriarchal institutions are trying to establish dominance over matriarchal ones. This could possibly also apply in this case as Buddhism, the most common religion in the area, is more male-dominated whereas the traditional social structure in the region is “matrilineal”, where descent is usually traced through the female line.

还有其他的合理的解释。世界各地对巫术的概念有许多共同点。例如，中年女性是最常见的受害者，同时还伴随着下毒的指控。但也有很多不同之处。告发巫术的另一个原因是，当父权制试图确立对母权制的统治时，这种情况就很普遍。这可能也适用于这种情况，这种情况还适用于佛教社会，佛教是当地最普遍的宗教，男性占主导地位的，而该地区传统的社会结构是“母系结构”，在这种情况下，血统是建立在母系血缘关系上的。

A patriarchal dimension to witchcraft accusations could also explain the prence of women as victims both in traditional societies, and even in modern contexts that can resemble “witch hunts”, such as online bullying specifically targeting women.

从父权制的角度也可以解释在传统社会甚至现代社会女性一直都是巫术指控的受害者，即使是现在社会，也会有“猎杀女巫”的情况，比如针对女性的网络欺凌。

The more research we do, the closer we can get to understanding and tackling the mechanisms behind these practices that can be devastating for women across the world.

研究越多，我们就能越接近理解和解决这些给全世界女性带来毁灭性破坏的行为背后的机制。



Peter Mackie
This is an interesting and welcome study. Just a little point that as a Mediist I must make, the European witch hunts took place in the Early Modern period…not the Medi.

这个研究很有趣而且很受欢迎。不过有一点,作为中古史学家,我必须强调，欧洲猎杀女巫发生在近代早期，不是中世纪。

David Morley
Do we know who the people are who start and maintain the rumours?  Are they similar to those accused of witchcraft (eg in age or gender), or different from them.  If the patriarchy/matriarchy argument is true, then one might expect men to play the dominant role.  In terms of age, is it younger people making the accusation, in order to unseat older more established competition?

我们知道是谁制造和维护谣言吗?他们与那些被指控会巫术的人(如年龄或性别)相同还是不同？如果父权制/母权制的论点是正确的，那么人们可能期望男性扮演主导角色。就年龄而言，是年轻人为了在竞争中击败年长者而提出的指控吗？

Ruth Mace 
Professor of Anthropology, UCL
unfortunately it is really hard to get any data on that.
作者：
不幸的是，很难找到相关数据。

David Morley
I feared you might say that . I believe that in the Salem witch trials both accusers and accused were female, but again have no idea if this was typical.

我就怕你会这么说。塞勒姆女巫审判案，原告和被告都是女性，但还是不知道这是不是典型案例。

备注：塞勒姆女巫审判事件，1692年发生在美国马萨诸塞州塞勒姆镇，造成20人死亡，200多人被逮捕或监禁，是历史上着名的冤案之一。 

Gordon Slaven
This is very interesting… In my limited understanding of some African beliefs, witches can be good or bad, Women can be born with supernatural powers, and these can be passed on to their daughters, Men, on the other hand have to chose (or be chosen by a spirit) to become a witch. The’ powers’ witches have can be used for the good of the community, or to detriment of a particular person or family.

非常有意思。我对一些非洲信仰稍微了解一点,女巫有好也有坏,有的女人天生具有超能力，这种超能力自动遗传给女儿，而男人要想拥有巫术，必须做出选择，或者被选择。女巫的力量可以用来造福社会，也可以伤害特定的人或家庭。

lily hidalgo
In this modern society & a few among the “educated”, rare cases occur on branding of a “witch”. In one particular case in a 3rd world setting, a low-income ethnic sub-group rationalised the rejection of an amorously obsessive man (who rose from low income status thru education however could not lift himself up the socio-eco ladder). This dejected prospector has such low self-esteem could not even approach nor talk to the woman but instead had his support network of family/ relatives & friends to “coerce”/ coopt the woman to make the overtures/demonstrate interest in the man. Unsuccessful in such overtures, the support network (claiming some positions in institutions) committed acts of harassment as breaking-in/house robbery, extortion, public shaming, name-calling including “old witch”. The rejection of the bewitched forlorn man is regarded a rejection of the man’s sub-group in the community. Regardless of the man’s history of depression (causing harm to himself & medical therapies), this man’s mental health was never regarded an issue.But the woman was continually subjected to objectification as a wicked witch. The society’s general belief is ‘bewitching’ is cast on someone to fall for the other thru magic spells by traditional healers with herbs placed in drinks/food, or on personal things (clothes etc). While a wicked witch causes illness and even demise of the object for unknown cause. It has been a folklore & traditional means to impose conformity by a majority to particular ‘norms/behaviors’.

在这个现代社会，和少数“受过教育”的社会里，很少出现“女巫”的标签。在第三世界有个特殊的情况，低收入的少数民族群体，拒绝接纳多情、为情所困的男人就很合理了，男人来自低收入家庭，受过教育，但是却无法登上社会经济阶梯。这位沮丧的探索者很自卑，不敢靠近女人，不敢跟女人说话，而他的家人和亲戚朋友则“胁迫”或诱使女人与这个男人交往，或者对这个男人表现出兴趣。而这种尝试失败后，这名男子周围的人就会闯入女人的家里，抢东西，勒索、对女人进行公开羞辱，骂她是老巫婆。而这名被迷住又被抛弃的男人就会被周围的人抛弃。不顾男人是否抑郁(对他的伤害以及治疗)，不考虑男人的精神健康。女人就被当作邪恶的女巫。这个社会的普遍认为男人“被勾走了魂儿”，是指那些人被迷惑的人，需要喝下或吃下施了咒语的草药，或者个人物品被施了咒语。而邪恶的女巫会引起疾病，甚至不明原因的死亡。要求大多数人符合特定的“规范/行为”，一直是风俗和传统。

Sven Hansson
In the books I have read about European witchcraft the majority of the accusers are female, and secondly children. But in the case of Spain, that did not have any witch hunting, research indicated also that it was something that spread into the countryside from higher up in the hierarchy. It did not emanate in the villages. At least not when it came to witch hunting and an epidemy of accusations. Then it was in all cases coming from higher up in the hierarchy of the society.

在我读过的有关欧洲巫术的书，里面大多数原告都是女性，其次是儿童。不过在西班牙，没有任何猎杀女巫的记载，研究还表明，这是一种从等级更高的地方蔓延到乡村的行为。农村不是这种行为的发源地。至少在猎杀女巫和女巫指控蔓延的时候是这样的。所有的案例都来自于社会等级的上层。

Ruth Mace
that example seems to fit the idea of patriarchal institutions being involved then

作者：
这个例子似乎符合当时的父权制度。