TED演讲:人类性进化的启示(1)

 　　I'm going to go off script and make Chris quite nervous here  我打算不按预定的来，这让克里斯很紧张

　　by making this audience participation¹.  我打算让观众参与互动

　　All right. Are you with me? Yeah. Yeah. All right.  懂我的意思吧，懂。很好

　　So what I'd like to do is have you raise your hand  我要你举手

　　if you've ever heard a heterosexual couple having sex.  如果你听到过异性恋夫妇做爱发出的声音

　　Could be the neighbors, hotel room, your parents. Sorry.  可以是邻居，酒店客房，或是父母，抱歉

　　Okay. Pretty much everybody.  几乎所有人都听过

　　Now raise your hand if the man was making more noise than the woman.  如果你听到男的制造出的声音比女的大，请举手

　　I see one guy there.  我好像只看到一个人举手

　　It doesn't count if it was you, sir.  如果是你的话，那就不算，先生

　　So his hand's down. And one woman. Okay.  他把手放了下来，还有一位女士，好

　　Sitting next to a loud guy.  坐在一个很吵的人旁边

　　Now what does this tell us?  这告诉我们什么

　　It tells us that human beings make noise when they have sex,  这告诉我们，人类在做爱时会发出声响

　　and it's generally the woman who makes more noise.  而且一般都是女性的声音大

　　This is known as female copulatory vocalization to the clipboard crowd.  顺便给大家讲下，这被称作女性交配发声

　　I wasn't even going to mention this,  我本不打算讲这个

　　but somebody told me that Meg Ryan might be here,  不过有人告诉我梅格·瑞安在这里

　　and she is the world's most famous female copulatory vocalizer.  而她是世界上最著名的女性交配发声者

　　So I thought, got to talk about that.  因此我想，我必须讲讲这个

　　We'll get back to that a little bit later.  后面我们还会回头讲一下这个

　　Let me start by saying human beings are not descended² from apes,  首先我要讲的是，人类并不是猿的后裔

　　despite what you may have heard. We are apes.  虽然你们可能听说过，我们是猿

　　We are more closely related to the chimp³ and the bonobo  和人关系更近的其实是黑猩猩和倭猩猩

　　than the African elephant is to the Indian elephant,  这种亲缘关系比非洲象和印度象还近

　　as Jared Diamond pointed⁴ out in one of his early books.  这是贾雷德·戴蒙德在他早期著作中指出的

　　We're more closely related to chimps⁵ and bonobos than  我们同黑猩猩和倭猩猩的关系要近过

　　chimps and bonobos are related to any other primate   黑猩猩和倭猩猩同其它任何灵长类的关系

　　gorillas⁶, orangutans, what have you.  无论是同大猩猩，红猩猩还是别的什么

　　So we're extremely closely related to them,  我们同它们的关系非常近

　　and as you'll see in terms of our behavior, we've got some relationship as well.  其实在行为上，我们也和它们非常类似

　　So what I'm asking today, the question I want to explore with you today is,  今天我要同你们一同探索的问题是

　　what kind of ape are we in terms of our sexuality?  就性而言，我们是怎样的猿

　　Now, since Darwin's day there's been what Cacilda and I have called  追寻达尔文的足迹，我和卡希尔达

　　the standard narrative⁷ of human sexual evolution, and you're all familiar with it,  提出了人类性进化的标准描述，你们应该很熟悉

　　even if you haven't read this stuff.  哪怕你们没有读过这些东西

　　The idea is that, as part of human nature,  其思想是，作为人类天性的一部分

　　from the beginning of our species' time,  从人类初始开始

　　men have sort of leased women's reproductive potential  通过将特定产品和服务提供给女性

　　by providing them with certain goods and services.  男性租用了女性的生殖潜能

　　Generally we're talking about meat, shelter, status, protection, things like that.  一般而言，我们讨论的是肉，住所，地位，保护这些

　　And in exchange, women have offered fidelity⁸, or at least a promise of fidelity.  作为交换，女性则提供忠诚，或者至少是对忠诚的保证

　　Now this sets men and women up in an oppositional⁹ relationship.  这让男性和女性处在了对立的关系上

　　The war between the sexes is built right into our DNA¹⁰, according to this vision. Right?  根据这种观点，两性之间的战争实际上是根植于DNA中的

　　What Cacilda and I have argued is that  我和卡希尔达认为

　　no, this economic relationship,  不，这个经济关系

　　this oppositional relationship,  这个对立关系

　　is actually an artifact of agriculture,  实际上是农业造成的

　　which only arose about 10,000 years ago at the earliest.  最早只出现在大约一万年前

　　Anatomically modern human beings  解剖学意义上的现代人类

　　have been around for about 200,000 years,  已经存在了大约二十万年

　　so we're talking about five percent, at most,  因此，这里顶多只是5%的

　　of our time as a modern, distinct species.  我们作为现代人类这一区别性物种的时间

　　So before agriculture, before the agricultural revolution,  在农业出现之前，在农业革命之前

　　it's important to understand that human beings lived in huntergatherer groups  我们需要理解，人类生活在狩猎采集的环境下

　　that are characterized wherever they're found in the world  无论处在世界上的什么地方

　　by what anthropologists called fierce egalitarianism.  这都被人类学家称作"残酷的平等主义"

　　They not only share things, they demand that things be shared:  他们不仅分享东西，还要求东西被分享

　　meat, shelter, protection, all these things  肉，住所，保护这些

　　that were supposedly being traded to women for their sexual fidelity,  原本被认为是女性用性忠诚来换取的东西

　　it turns out, are shared widely among these societies.  实际上是在社会范围内广泛共享的

　　Now I'm not saying that our ancestors were noble savages¹¹, and I'm not saying  我倒不是说，我们的祖先是高贵的野蛮人，或是

　　modern day huntergatherers are noble savages either.  现代狩猎采集者是高贵的野蛮人

　　What I'm saying is that  我只是说

　　this is simply the best way to mitigate¹² risk in a foraging¹³ context.  这不过是觅食环境中减少风险的最佳方式

　　And there's really no argument about this among anthropologists.  这在人类学界并没有太多争议

1 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

2 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

3 chimp   

n.黑猩猩

参考例句：

• In fact,the color of gorilla and chimp are light-color.其实大猩猩和黑猩猩的肤色是较为浅的。
• The chimp is the champ.猩猩是冠军。

4 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

5 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

6 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

8 fidelity   

n.忠诚，忠实；精确

参考例句：

• There is nothing like a dog's fidelity.没有什么能比得上狗的忠诚。
• His fidelity and industry brought him speedy promotion.他的尽职及勤奋使他很快地得到晋升。

9 oppositional   

反对的，对抗的

参考例句：

• I wish to forcefully grasp fragile and entirely oppositional poles, allowing them to coexist. 我想要强押起脆弱的、完全相斥的两端，让他们共存。
• Robot Soccer game is an international and high-tech oppositional activity that develops rapidly in recent years. 机器人足球比赛是近年来在国际上迅速开展起来的高技术对抗活动。

10 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

11 savages   

未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There're some savages living in the forest. 森林里居住着一些野人。
• That's an island inhabited by savages. 那是一个野蛮人居住的岛屿。

12 mitigate   

vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和

参考例句：

• The government is trying to mitigate the effects of inflation.政府正试图缓和通货膨胀的影响。
• Governments should endeavour to mitigate distress.政府应努力缓解贫困问题。

13 foraging   

v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）

参考例句：

• They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句