纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 007Ain Sakhri的恋人（4）

The result was as profound a transformation¹ for human beings as any revolution in history. This process of settling down did, of course, make you more vulnerable to a crop failure, pests, diseases, above all to the weather, but while things were good, society boomed.

这种结果与人类历史上任何一次革命性转变一样，产生的影响是极其深刻的。定居生活的过程中，确实使人类更加容易遭受各种威胁——谷物失收、虫灾、疾病等，几乎都由气候变化决定；然而遇上风调雨顺的好年头，人类社会就会蓬勃发展。

A guaranteed abundant food source fuelled a sustained population explosion, and people began to live in large villages of between two or three hundred - the highest concentration of people the world had yet seen. When your larder² is stocked, the pressure is off and you've got time to think, and these rapidly growing, settled communities had the leisure to work out new social relationships and to contemplate³ the changing pattern of their lives.

这种很有保障的丰富食物来源成就了持续性的人口大爆炸，人们开始生活在两三百人组成的大村落里，这样的规模是史无前例的。当你家里的储藏架上填得满满的，压力便降低了，你开始有闲心进行思考；再加上生活在这快速发展、落户安居的村落里，人们也开始有闲心来培养出新的社会关系，并且认真地考虑关于他们生活模式的各种转变。

Our little sculpture of the entwined lovers may be a response to this new way of living - a different way of thinking about ourselves. What does it mean to depict⁴ the sexual act in this way, at this time? Archaeologist Ian Hodder has done a lot of work on this period and he sees here a process he calls the 'domestication⁵ of the mind':

我们这件缠绕紧拥的恋人小雕塑也许恰恰代表了这种崭新的生活方式，一种看顾人类自身的不同思维。在历史上这个时期，采用这种表现手法来描绘性爱行为，这究竟意味着什么呢？斯坦福大学的考古学家伊恩·霍德对这段历史时期研究颇深，他将这里观察到的现象称之为“心灵的驯化”过程：

'The Natufian culture is really before fully⁶ domesticated⁷ plants and animals, but you already have a sedentary society. And so, I think that this particular object, because of its focus on humans and human sexuality in such a clear way, is part of that general shift towards a greater concern with domesticating⁸ the mind, domesticating humans, domesticating human society, being more concerned with human relationships rather than on the relationships between humans and wild animals, and on the relationships between wild animals themselves.'

Natufian文化其实存在于人类完全驯化植物与动物之前，然而当时已经产生了一个定居社会。因此，我觉得因为这件特殊物品如此清晰地集中刻画出人类性行为，也反映人类心灵上驯化、身体上驯化、社会上驯化、过程中思维变迁的一种巨大转折；人们变得更加关注人与人之间的关系，而不是像以前一样，只关心那些人与野兽，野兽与野兽之间的关系。

As you hold the Ain Sakhri pebble⁹ and turn it round, what's striking is not just that there are clearly two human figures rather than one, but that it's impossible, because of the way the stone has been carved, to say which is male and which is female could that generalised treatment, that ambiguity¹⁰, have been a deliberate intention on the part of the maker¹¹?

当你把玩着这枚Ain Sakhri卵石，转过来转过去地观察，让人感叹的不仅仅是这是一件双人而非单人雕像，更重要的是从这石头雕刻的方式，根本就区分不清哪个是男，哪个是女。这种模糊处理，这种模棱两可性，当年雕塑家是否是有意而为之的呢？

We just don't know, but we don't know either how this little statue would have been used. Some scholars think it might have been connected with fertility, but Ian Hodder takes a different view:

我们无从知晓，同时我们也无法弄清这件小小雕像当年的真正用途。有些学者认为可能与生育有关，但伊恩·霍德采取不同的看法：

'This object is one that could be read in many ways, and I think that earlier on, one would have often thought that these notions of sexual coupling, and sexuality itself, were linked to ideas of the mother goddess, because it's been assumed that when you have the first farmers their main concern is the fertility of the crops.

“这物品显然可以有不同的诠释方式，而且我觉得在人类早期，很容易就可以把性爱及性行为本身与母系女神本身联系起来，因为大家都在觉得，当最早期的农耕人类出现了，自然而然的他们主要关心的使是农作物的生育能力。”

1 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

2 larder   

n.食物贮藏室，食品橱

参考例句：

• Please put the food into the larder.请将您地食物放进食物柜内。
• They promised never to raid the larder again.他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。

3 contemplate   

vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视

参考例句：

• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate.战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。
• The consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate.后果不堪设想。

4 depict   

vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述

参考例句：

• I don't care to see plays or films that depict murders or violence.我不喜欢看描写谋杀或暴力的戏剧或电影。
• Children's books often depict farmyard animals as gentle,lovable creatures.儿童图书常常把农场的动物描写得温和而可爱。

5 domestication   

n.驯养，驯化

参考例句：

• The first was the domestication of animals. 第一个阶段是驯养动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In northwestern China, there is no evidence for endemic domestication of any animals. 在中国西北，没有任何当地动物驯化的迹象。 来自辞典例句

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 domesticating   

v.驯化( domesticate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Domesticating rabbits are the basis of a profitbale fur industry. 驯养野兔是赚钱的毛皮工业的基础。 来自互联网
• In addition, the extent of a facsimile of culture, foreignizing and domesticating are important in translation. 此外，翻译中“文化传真”度的把握，以及译语的异化与归化都至关重要。 来自互联网

9 pebble   

n.卵石，小圆石

参考例句：

• The bird mistook the pebble for egg and tried to hatch it.这只鸟错把卵石当蛋，想去孵它。
• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。

10 ambiguity   

n.模棱两可；意义不明确

参考例句：

• The telegram was misunderstood because of its ambiguity.由于电文意义不明确而造成了误解。
• Her answer was above all ambiguity.她的回答毫不含糊。

11 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。