万物简史 第644期:永不安分的类人猿(11)

Thorne emphatically (and I believe sincerely) dismisses the idea that his theory is in any measure racist¹ and accounts for the uniformity of human evolution by suggesting that there was a lot of movement back and forth² between cultures and regions. "There's no reason to suppose that people only went in one direction," he says. "People were moving all over the place, and where they met they almost certainly shared genetic³ material through interbreeding. New arrivals didn't replace the indigenous⁴ populations, they joined them. They became them." He likens the situation to when explorers like Cook or Magellan encountered remote peoples for the first time. "They weren't meetings of different species, but of the same species with some physical differences."

卡尔顿·库恩坚决（这一点我确信无疑）否认他的理论有任何种族主义倾向。他认为，存在于不同的文化和地区之间的反反复复的交流，说明了人类进化的同源性。没有理由认定人类只沿着一个方向进化，” 他说，“人类在世界各地流动，几乎可以肯定，在交汇的地方，通过异种交配，分享了基因。新来的人并没有代替土著居民，而是融入到他们中间，最后变成一体。” 他打了一个比喻，当库克和麦哲伦这样的探险家第一次遇到偏远地区的居民时，“他们并没有遇到不同的种族，而只是遇到了某些身体特点有所不同的同类”。

What you actually see in the fossil record, Thorne insists, is a smooth, continuous transition. "There's a famous skull⁵ from Petralona in Greece, dating from about 300,000 years ago, that has been a matter of contention⁶ among traditionalists because it seems in some ways Homo erectus but in other ways Homo sapiens. Well, what we say is that this is just what you would expect to find in species that were evolving rather than being displaced."

桑恩坚持认为，在人类化石上你所能观察到的也是一个均衡而不断的变迁。有一副发现于希腊佩特拉朗纳的很著名的骸骨，大约生活于30万年前，就是一件在传统主义者中间一直富有争议的事，因为他似乎同时具有直立人和智人的某些特征。怎么说呢？我们要说的是，这正是你会期望在物种身上看到的：他们是在进化，不是在替代。”

1 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

2 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。

3 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

4 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

5 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

6 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。