纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 065泰诺仪式用椅（8）

 

In the Caribbean today Taino identity is the subject of much public debate, but it's a contentious¹ subject. In his book 'Taino Revival²', the author Gabriel Haslip-Viera considers the claims of those who say they are of Taino descent:

"The Taino people as a pure ethnic³ group - shall we say 'uncontaminated' with other populations - that population essentially⁴ came to an end by 1600, about a hundred years after the arrival of the Spaniards. The small number of survivors⁵ essentially mixed in with the Spanish colonists⁶ and the Africans that were bought into the Caribbean to replace them as the main labour-force. Because primarily the mixture in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean is an African-European mix, that's what has been coming out in the recent studies that have been done. The so-called admixture tests that geneticists have been doing in recent years, those tests have demonstrated overwhelmingly that the peoples of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, of the Greater Antilles, are people of mixed background and that the mixture is primarily European and African."

The Taino may have been virtually wiped out hundreds of years ago, but we still have echoes of the lost Taino world in a few words familiar to us, words that reflect Taino experience and culture. 'Hurricane' is one, and so are 'barbecue', 'hammock', 'canoe' and 'tobacco'. These are prosaic⁷, everyday things, but the physical survivals of the Taino world, like the duho stool, speak of the universal human need to connect with what is beyond the mundane⁸, with the world of spirits and gods. Next week is all about this constant human need. It's about religion across the world, from Constantinople to Easter Island . . . and we'll be beginning with the Crown of Thorns.

到底有多少泰诺遗产或身份被保留了下来？这至今仍是加勒比海地区争论不休的公共议题。著有《泰诺复兴》一书的加夫列尔赫斯利普-维拉教授就那些自称为泰诺人后代的人的声明表示：

至公元一千六百年西班牙人到来百年之后，作为纯粹种族的泰诺人已不复存在。为数不多的幸存者基本先后与西班牙殖民者以及被运送过来充当主要劳动力的非洲黑人进行了交合。近期科研成果，即遗传学家所做的混血测试表明，在以说西班牙语为主的加勒比海地区，最主要的混血形式是非欧混血。实验的压倒性结果表明，大安的列斯群岛的这些说西班牙语的加勒比人都有混血背景，且主要是非欧混血。

泰诺人也许在几百年前就彻底灭绝了，但我们仍然可以通过一些熟悉的词与失落的泰诺世界产生共鸣。这些反映了他们的经验与文化的词—一暴风、烧烤、吊床、独木舟和烟草—一属于加勒比人的日常生活。而泰诺世界所留下的物质遗产，如都何凳，道出了人类普遍的、与超脱现实的灵魂世界交流的需求。这种未曾中断过的需求将是贯穿以下多件文物的主题。

 

1 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

2 revival   

n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振

参考例句：

• The period saw a great revival in the wine trade.这一时期葡萄酒业出现了很大的复苏。
• He claimed the housing market was showing signs of a revival.他指出房地产市场正出现复苏的迹象。

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

6 colonists   

n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 prosaic   

adj.单调的，无趣的

参考例句：

• The truth is more prosaic.真相更加乏味。
• It was a prosaic description of the scene.这是对场景没有想象力的一个描述。

8 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。