纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 006巴布亚新几内亚鸟形杵（4）

So we went for the difficult food, we went for things like the small hard grass seeds we call cereals, that are indigestible if eaten raw and may even be poisonous, and we have to pulp¹ them up and turn them into things like bread and dough². And we went into the poisonous giant tubers, like the yam and the taro³, which also had to be leeched⁴, ground up and cooked before we could eat them. And that was our competitive advantage - other animals that didn't have the big brain couldn't think several steps ahead to do that.'

因此我们另开蹊径，去寻找那些要获取的话，相当困难的食物。我们寻找到了那种被我们称之为谷物的草籽，又小又硬，生吃的话，肯定消化不了，甚至可以有毒性；于是我们学会了把它们浸泡成浆，再做成类似面包或面团之类的东西。我们也寻找到了那些带有毒性的、个头颇大的块茎，像山药、芋头，这些在食用之前得经过榨取、提炼和烹饪。这就是我们人类的竞争优势，其他动物可没有具备像我们这么发达的大脑，能够有预见性，超前跳跃式的进行思考。”

So it takes brains to get to cookery. We don't know what gender⁵ the cooks were who used our pestle⁶ to grind taro in New Guinea, but we do know from archaeological research in the Middle East that cookery there was primarily a woman's activity.

所以烹饪也是需要动脑筋的。我们无法知道这根使用舂杵的厨师性别是男是女，但中东地区的考古成果显示通常烹饪是女性主导的。

From examining burial sites of this period, scientists have discovered that the hips⁷, ankles and knees of mature women are generally severely⁸ worn - the grinding of wheat then would have been done kneeling down, rocking back and forth⁹ to crush the kernels¹⁰ between two heavy stones.

通过研究这一时期的墓葬遗址，科学家们发现成年女性的臀部、脚踝与膝盖部位严重磨损——那时研磨小麦，通常需要双膝下跪、利用前后两块沉重石头来回滚动，反复研磨，直到把谷物碾碎。

This arthritis-inducing activity must have been very tough, but the women of the Middle East and the new cooks everywhere were cultivating a small range of nourishing basic foods that could sustain much larger groups of people than had been possible before. Most of these new foods were pretty bland¹¹, but the pestle and mortar¹² can also play a key part here in making them more interesting. Madhur Jaffrey again:

这种活动会导致关节炎，肯定是相当艰苦的。不过中东这些妇女与世界其他地区的新厨师们正在培育出一种最基本的滋补食品，品种虽少，却可以养活史无前例庞大数目的人口。这种新型食品大部分嚼之无味，但是这研钵与舂杵却很关键使一切变得更加丰富有趣。梅赫尔·杰弗瑞再次说道。

'If you take mustard seeds, which were known in ancient times, if you leave them whole they have one taste, but if you crush them, they're like Jekyll and Hyde; they become pungent¹³ and bitter, so you change the very nature of a seasoning¹⁴ by crushing it.'

“比如芥菜籽吧，远古时代的人类认识它了。如果整颗的话，尝起来是一种味道；而如果碾碎了，就像是‘变身博士’了，它的味道就变得辛辣、苦涩。因此你可以通过碾磨来从本质上改变一种调料。”

And Martin Jones believes that in due course, this early farming changed the whole pattern of our society:

马丁·琼斯认为，这种早期农耕形式最终顺理成章地改变了我们的社会模式：

'We specialise in those smaller number of foods - not stopping the others - but emphasising a smaller number of foods, and that's how agriculture emerges, and it allows people to interact in different ways, to share food in different ways and to make contact with each other in different ways.'

“现在我们专注于品种较少的食物，没有停止食用其他种类，但却更注重于若干种类的食物；于是产生了农业，促使人类互动的方式多样化起来，来分享食物，来与彼此交流沟通。”

These new crops helped create new kinds of communities because, if you were lucky with the weather, they could produce surpluses which could then be stored, exchanged or simply consumed in a great feast. Our pestle's long, thin elegant body looks far too delicate to have been able to withstand the vigorous daily pummelling of taro, so we should perhaps think of it more as being used to prepare special meals; meals where people gathered, as we might do today, to trade, to dance, or to celebrate key moments in life. Sharing food is one of the most basic ways of binding¹⁵ people together.

这些新兴农作物有助于人类社区的建立，因为假如你运气够好，遇上风调雨顺的气候，收成好了，就可以囤存余粮，就可以彼此交换，或者直接大家聚一起大快朵颐,饱餐一顿。我们这根舂杵纤长优雅的身形，看上去似乎承受不了常日生活里大力碾磨芋头那种粗活苦活，也许我们应该把它看作来用准备特殊膳食的，一场人们欢聚一堂的盛宴，就像我们今天也可能做的一样。盛宴上大家进行物物交换，欢歌乐舞，庆祝生命中的关键时刻。分享食物是巩固人与人之间纽带的一种最基本方法之一。

1 pulp   

n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆

参考例句：

• The pulp of this watermelon is too spongy.这西瓜瓤儿太肉了。
• The company manufactures pulp and paper products.这个公司制造纸浆和纸产品。

2 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

3 taro   

n.芋，芋头

参考例句：

• Main grain crop has taro,corn,banana to wait.主要粮食作物有芋头、玉米、芭蕉等。
• You celebrate your birthday with taro,red bean and butter.用红豆、芋头和黄油给自己过生日。

4 leeched   

v.用水蛭吸血（leech的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Her relatives leeched her for her money like parasites. 她的亲戚像寄生虫似地榨取她的钱财。 来自辞典例句
• A group of silly young girls leeched onto the popular singer. 一群傻姑娘死缠着那个流行歌手。 来自互联网

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 pestle   

n.杵

参考例句：

• He ground the rock candy with a mortar and pestle.他自己动手用研钵和杵把冰糖研成粉。
• An iron pestle can be ground down to a needle.只要功夫深，铁杵磨成针。

7 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

9 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

10 kernels   

谷粒( kernel的名词复数 )； 仁； 核； 要点

参考例句：

• These stones contain kernels. 这些核中有仁。
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。

11 bland   

adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的

参考例句：

• He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
• This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。

12 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

13 pungent   

adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a pungent style.文章写得泼辣。
• Its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hideouts.它的刺激性气味会令恐怖分子窒息，迫使他们从藏身地点逃脱出来。

14 seasoning   

n.调味；调味料；增添趣味之物

参考例句：

• Salt is the most common seasoning.盐是最常用的调味品。
• This sauce uses mushroom as its seasoning.这酱油用蘑菇作调料。

15 binding   

有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的

参考例句：

• The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。