异类之不一样的成功启示录 第112期:有争议的土地

 　　So why was Appalachian the way it was?

　　那么，为什么阿巴拉契亚就会是这种方式呢？

　　Because of where the original inhabitants of the region came from.

　　这和最初居住在这里的居民来自的地区有关系。

　　The so-called American backcountry states, stretching from the Pennsylvania boarders south and west through Virgina and west Virginia,

　　所谓美国的“穷乡僻壤”是指从南部的宾夕法尼亚州边界和穿过西部的弗吉尼亚州和西弗吉尼亚州，

　　Kentucky and Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, and the northern end of Alabama and Georgia, were settled overwhelmingly by immigrants from one of the world's most ferocious¹ cultures of honor.

　　肯塔基州和田纳西州、北卡罗来纳和南卡罗来纳州与北端阿拉巴马州和格鲁吉亚，在这些地区定居的移民，绝大多数来自世界上荣誉文化最深的地区。

　　They were "Scotch-Irish", that is, from the lowlands of Scotland, the northern counties of England, and Ulster in Northern Ireland.

　　这便是“苏格兰-爱尔兰”，即从苏格兰低地、英格兰北部各郡、到北爱尔兰的阿尔斯特。

　　These regions were known as the borderlands.

　　这些区域处于偏远之地。

　　And they were remote and lawless territories that had been fought over for hundred of years.

　　偏远的边境和无法律明文规定的领土，数百年来都是争夺之地。

　　The people of the region were steeped in violence. They were herdsmen, scraping out a living on rocky and infertile² land.

　　该地区人民有长久以来都浸染在暴力当中。他们是生活在山区和贫瘠之地的牧民。

　　They were clannish³, responding to the harshness and turmoil⁴ of their environment by forming tight family bonds and placing loyalty⁵ to blood above all else.

　　他们排斥其它宗族，形成严密家庭纽带应对残酷和混乱的环境，把血液的忠诚高于一切。

　　And when they immigrated⁶ to North America, they moved into the American interior, to remote, lawless, rocky and marginally fertile places like Harlan that allowed them to reproduce in the New World the culture of honor that they had created in the Old World.

　　而当他们移民到北美，他们进入美国的领土，这些地方偏远，不受政府法律管辖的边界或山区等像哈兰一样的地区，使他们在这个新的世界中继续延续他们在旧的世界里创造的荣誉文化。

　　"To the first settlers, the American backcountry was a dangerous environment, just as the British borderlands had been," the historian David Hackett Fisher writes in Albion's Seed.

　　“对第一批定居者，美国的穷乡僻壤是一个危险的环境，就像英国的边境曾经那么危险。”历史学家大卫.哈克特.费希尔在“阿尔比恩的种子”中写道。

　　Much of the southern highlands were "debatable lands" in the border sense of a contested territory without established government or the rule of law.

　　从没有政府法治管辖的角度来看那些被争来夺去的土地，大部分的南部高地是“有争议的土地”。

　　The borderers were more at home than others in this anarchic environment, which was well suited to their family system, their worrier ethic⁷, their farming and herding⁸ economy, their attitudes towards land and wealth and their ideas of work and power.

　　这些居住天边境的人们在这样一个无政府的环境中，呆在家里的时间更多，这更好地符合他们的家族制度，武士精神、农牧经济、他们对待土地和财富的态度以及他们对待工作和权力的思想。

　　So well adapted was the border culture to this environment that other ethnic⁹ groups tended to copy it.

　　在这种环境下，其文化也很好地适应其中，其他种族群体于是复制这种文化。

　　The ethos of the North British borders came to dominate this "dark and bloody¹⁰ ground," partly by force of numbers, but mainly because it was a means of survival in a raw and dangerous world.

　　当时，英国北方边境精神主宰了这个“黑暗及血腥的地面”，部分以数量上的压力，但主要是因为它是一种在原始和危险的世界中的生存手段。

1 ferocious   

adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的

参考例句：

• The ferocious winds seemed about to tear the ship to pieces.狂风仿佛要把船撕成碎片似的。
• The ferocious panther is chasing a rabbit.那只凶猛的豹子正追赶一只兔子。

2 infertile   

adj.不孕的；不肥沃的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• Plants can't grow well in the infertile land.在贫瘠的土地上庄稼长不好。
• Nobody is willing to till this infertile land.这块薄田没有人愿意耕种。

3 clannish   

adj.排他的，门户之见的

参考例句：

• They were a clannish lot,not given to welcoming strangers.他们那帮人抱成一团，不怎么欢迎生人。
• Firms are also doggedly clannish on the inside.公司内部同时也具有极其顽固的排他性。

4 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

5 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

6 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句

7 ethic   

n.道德标准，行为准则

参考例句：

• They instilled the work ethic into their children.他们在孩子们的心中注入了职业道德的理念。
• The connotation of education ethic is rooted in human nature's mobility.教育伦理的内涵根源于人本性的变动性。

8 herding   

中畜群

参考例句：

• The little boy is herding the cattle. 这个小男孩在放牛。
• They have been herding cattle on the tableland for generations. 他们世世代代在这高原上放牧。

9 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。

10 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。