A New Understanding of Human History and the Roots of Inequality | David Wengrow | TED

翻译人员: jenifer 李 校对人员: Lening Xu

In the summer of 2014,

2014 年的夏天，

I was in Iraqi Kurdistan with a small team of archaeologists,

我和一小队考古学家 在伊拉克的库尔德斯坦，

finishing a season of field excavations near the border town of Halabja.

在边境城镇哈拉布贾的附近 完成了一季度的野外挖掘工作。

Our project was looking into something which has puzzled and intrigued me

我们的项目一直在研究一些 让我困惑和好奇的事情，

ever since I began studying archeology.

自从我开始学习考古学以来。

We're taught to believe that thousands of years ago,

我们的教育让我们相信 几千年前，

when our ancestors first invented agriculture

当我们的祖先在这个地区 首次发明农业时，

in that part of the world,

that it set in motion a chain of consequences

它引发了一系列的结果，

that would shape our modern world in a particular direction,

使得我们的现代世界朝着 特定的方向、在特定的道路上发展。

on a particular course.

By farming wheat,

通过种植小麦，

our ancestors supposedly developed new attachments to the land they lived on.

我们的祖先对他们赖以生存的土地 产生了新的依恋。

Private property was invented.

私有财产诞生了。

And with that, the need to defend it.

因为诞生了， 所以要捍卫它。

Along with new opportunities for some people to accumulate surpluses,

伴随着新的机遇， 一些人积累盈余，

came new labor demands,

产生了新的劳动力需求，

tying most people to a hard regime of tending their crops

将大多数人束缚在 一个艰苦的耕种制度下，

while a privileged few received freedom

而少数享有特权的人获得了自由

and the leisure to do other things.

和闲暇时间去做其他的事情。

To think, to experiment,

去思考，去实验，

to create the foundations of what we refer to as civilization.

去创造我们所说的文明的基础。

Now, according to this familiar story,

如今，根据这个 耳熟能详的故事，

what happened next is that populations boomed,

接下来发生的是人口激增，

villages turned into towns, towns became cities,

村庄变成了城镇， 城镇变成了城市，

and with the emergence of cities,

随着城市的出现，

our species was locked on a familiar trajectory of development

我们的物种被绑定在 一个熟知的发展轨迹上——

where spiraling populations and technological change

螺旋式增长的人口和技术变革

were bound up with the kind of dreadful inequalities

与我们今天看到的那种 可怕的不平等紧密相连。

that we see around us today.

Except, as anyone can tell you,

但是，任何看过来自中东证据的人 都可以告诉你，

who's looked at the evidence from the Middle East,

almost nothing of what I've just been saying is actually true.

我刚才说的 几乎没有一句是真的。

And the consequences I'm going to suggest

我将要提出的结论 是非常深远的。

are quite profound.

Actually, what happened after the invention of agriculture

实际上，大约 1 万年前， 农业发明之后的事情，

around 10,000 years ago,

is a long period of around another 4,000 years

是大约4000年的漫长时期，

in which villages largely remained villages.

在这段时间里， 村庄基本上仍然是村庄。

And actually there's very little evidence for the emergence of rigid social classes,

事实上，几乎没有证据表明 僵化的社会阶层的出现，

which is not to say that nothing happened.

但这并不代表 什么都没有发生。

Over those 4,000 years,

在这 4 千年里，

technological change actually proceeded apace.

技术变革实际上是飞速发展的。

Without kings,

没有国王，

without bureaucracies, without standing armies,

没有官僚机构， 没有常备军，

these early farming populations fostered the development of mathematical knowledge,

这些早期的农业人口 促进了数学知识和先进冶金的发展。

advanced metallurgy.

They learned to cultivate olives, vines and date palms.

他们学会了种植橄榄， 藤蔓和棕榈树。

They invented leavened bread, beer,

他们发明了发酵面包、啤酒，

and they developed textile technologies:

他们开发了纺织技术、 陶工的轮子、帆。

the potter's wheel, the sail.

And they spread all of these innovations far and wide,

他们将这些创新四处传播，

from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean,

从东地中海的海岸到黑海，

up to the Black Sea,

and from the Persian Gulf,

从波斯湾一直到库尔德斯坦的山区，

all the way over to the mountains of Kurdistan,

where our excavations were taking place.

我们在那里进行挖掘。

I've often referred, half jokingly, to this long period of human history

我经常半开玩笑地 将人类历史的这段漫长时期

as the era of the first global village.

称为第一个地球村的时代。

Because it's not just the technological innovations that are so remarkable,

因为不仅技术创新 如此引人注目，

but also the social innovations

而且还有社会创新

which enabled people to do all these things

使人们能够在不建立中心的情况下 完成所有这些事情，

without forming centers

and without raising up a class of permanent leaders over everybody else.

也不用建立一个凌驾于其他人之上 永久性的领袖阶层。

Now, oddly enough,

奇怪的是，

this efflorescence of culture is not what we usually refer to

这种文化的繁荣并不是

我们通常所说的文明。

as civilization.

Instead, that term is usually reserved for harshly unequal societies,

相反，这个术语 通常是指极度不平等的社会，

which came thousands of years later.

那此几千年后才出现。

Dynastic Mesopotamia. Pharaonic Egypt.

美索不达米亚王朝、 埃及法老、

Imperial Rome.

罗马帝国。

Societies that were deeply stratified.

阶层分化严重的社会。

So in short,

简而言之，

I've always felt that there was basically something very weird

我一直都觉得我们的文明概念中 有一些非常奇怪的东西，

about our concept of civilization,

something that leaves us lost for words, tongue tied.

让我们无法用语言表达。

When we're confronted with thousands of years of human beings,

我们面对着几千年的人类历史，

say, practicing agriculture, creating new technologies,

他们从事农业，创造新技术，

but not lording it over each other

但却没有相互霸凌

or exploiting each other to the maximum.

或最大限度地剥削对方。

Why don't we have better words?

为什么我们没有更好的词?

Where is our lexicon for those long expanses of human history

在漫长的人类历史上，我们没有 那样做，我们的词汇表在哪里?

in which we weren't behaving that way?

Over the past ten years or more,

在过去的十多年里，

I worked closely together with the late,

我与已故的伟大人类学家

great anthropologist David Graeber

大卫·格雷伯（David Graeber） 密切合作

to address some of these questions.

解决了其中的一些问题。

But we did it on a much larger scale

但我们是在更大的范围内做研究，

because from our perspective as an archaeologist and an anthropologist,

因为从我们作为考古学家 和人类学家的角度来看，

this clash between theory and data,

理论和数据之间的冲突，

between the standard narrative of human history

人类历史的标准叙述

and the evidence that we have before us today

与今天摆在我们面前的证据 之间的冲突

is not just confined to the early Middle East.

不仅仅局限于中东早期。

It’s everything:

它是一切事物：

out whole picture of human history that we’ve been telling for centuries,

我们几个世纪以来 一直在讲述的人类历史的全貌，

it’s basically wrong.

基本上是错误的。

I'm going to try and explain a few more of the reasons why.

我将尝试解释更多的原因。

Let's go back to some of those core concepts,

让我们回到其中的 一些核心概念，

the stable reference points around which we've been organizing

数百年来， 我们一直围绕这些稳定的参考点

来组织和编排 我们对世界历史的理解。

and orchestrating our understanding of world history for hundreds of years.

Take, for instance, that notion that for most of its history,

例如，有一种观点认为， 在人类历史的大部分时间里，

the human species lived in tiny egalitarian bands of hunter gatherers,

人类都生活在狩猎、采集者组成的 小型平等主义群体中，

until the advent of agriculture ushered in a new age of inequality.

农业的出现开创了 一个不平等的新时代。

Or the notion that with the arrival of cities came social classes,

还有一种观念认为 随着城市的到来，

sacred kings and rapacious oligarchs trampling everyone else underfoot.

社会阶层、神圣的国王 和贪婪的寡头们开始践踏其他人。

From our very first history lessons,

从我们的第一节历史课开始，

we're taught to believe that our modern world,

我们被教导相信， 我们的现代世界，

with all of its advantages and amenities,

连同所有的优势和便利、

modern health care, space travel,

现代医疗保健、太空旅行，

all the things that are good and exciting,

以及所有美好和令人兴奋的事情，

couldn't possibly exist

是不可能存在的。

without that original concentration of humanity

如果没有人类最初集中 在越来越大的单位中，

into larger and larger units

and the relentless buildup of inequalities that came with it.

以及随之而来的 不平等的不断累积。

Inequality, we're taught to believe,

我们被教导要相信，

was the necessary price of civilization.

不平等是文明的必要代价。

Well, if so, then what are we to make of the early Middle East?

那如果是这样， 我们该如何看待早期的中东?

Perhaps one might say there was just a very, very, very long lag time,

也许有人会说， 那只是一段非常长的滞后时间，

4,000 years,

长达 4 千年。

before all these developments took place.

在所有这些发展发生之前。

Inequality was bound to happen, it was bound to set in.

不平等必然会发生， 也必然会恶化。

It was just a matter of time.

只是时间早晚的问题。

And perhaps the rest of the story still works

也许故事的剩余部分 仍然适用于世界其他地区。

for other parts of the world.

Well, let's think a bit about what we can actually say today

现在让我们想想， 关于城市的起源我们能说些什么。

about the origin of cities.

Surely, you might think, with the appearance of cities

当然，你可能会想到， 随着城市的出现，

came the appearance of social classes.

社会阶层也随之出现。

Think about ancient Egypt with its pyramid temples.

想想古埃及的金字塔寺庙。

Or Shang China with its lavish tombs.

或是拥有奢华陵墓的中国商朝。

The classic Maya with their warlike rulers.

经典的玛雅人 和他们好战的统治者。

Or the Inca empire with its mummified kings and queens.

或者是印加帝国国王和王后的木乃伊。

But actually, the picture these days is not so clear.

但事实上，现在的情况 不再那么清晰了。

What modern archeology tells us, for example,

例如，现代考古学告诉我们，

is that there were already cities

黄河下游就已经有了城市，

on the lower reaches of the Yellow River

over 1,000 years before the rise of the Shang.

在商朝崛起的 1000 多年前，

And on the other side of the Pacific,

在太平洋的另一边，

in Peru’s Rio Supe,

秘鲁的苏贝河（Rio Supe），

we already see huge agglomerations of people

我们看到有着 宏伟建筑的大型人口聚集地。

with monumental architecture 4,000 years before the Inca.

出现在印加时代 4000 年前。

In South Asia, 4,500 years ago,

在南亚， 4500 年前，

the first cities appeared at places like Mohenjo-daro

第一批城市出现在 印度河流域的

and Harappa in the Indus Valley.

摩亨佐-达罗（Mohenjo-daro） 和哈拉帕（Harappa）等地区。

But these huge settlements present no evidence of kings or queens.

但这些巨大的聚居地 没有国王或女王存在的证据。

No royal monuments, no aggrandizing art.

没有皇家纪念碑， 没有浮夸的艺术。

And what's more, we know that much of the population

更重要的是，

我们知道很多人生活在 有良好卫生条件的高质量房屋内。

lived in high-quality housing with excellent sanitation.

North of the Black Sea,

在黑海北部，

in the modern country of Ukraine,

在现代国家乌克兰，

archaeologists have found evidence of even more ancient cities

考古学家发现了 更古老的城市的证据，

going back 6,000 years.

可追溯到 6000 年前。

And again,

又一次，

these huge settlements present no evidence

这些巨大的聚居地没有显示出 有关独裁统治的迹象。

of authoritarian rule.

No temples, no palaces,

没有寺庙，没有宫殿，

not even any evidence of central storage facilities

甚至没有证据表明存在 中央存储设施或自上而下的官僚机构。

or top-down bureaucracy.

Actually what we see in those cases are these great concentric rings of houses

事实上，我们在这些案例中看到的是 一些巨大的同心圆房屋，

arranged rather like the inside of a tree trunk

它们排列得很像树干的内部，

around neighborhood assembly halls.

围绕着社区的集会大厅。

And it stayed that way for about 800 years.

这种情况持续了 大约 800 年。

So what this means is that long before the birth of democracy in ancient Greece,

这意味着， 在古希腊民主主义诞生前，

there were already well-organized cities

在几个大陆上 就已经有了组织良好的城市，

on several of the world's continents

which present no evidence for ruling dynasties.

并且没有任何证据表明 存在统治王朝。

And some of them also seem to have managed perfectly well without priests,

他们中的一些运作得很好，

在没有牧师、官吏 和军事政治家的情况下，

mandarins and warrior politicians.

Of course, some early cities did go on

当然，一些早期的城市

to become the capitals of kingdoms and empires.

确实成为了王国和帝国的首都。

But it's important to note that others went

但重要的是，

其他城市的发展方向完全相反。

in completely the opposite direction.

To take one well-documented example,

举一个有充分记录的例子，

around the year 250 AD,

大约在公元 250 年，

the city of Teotihuacan, in the valley of Mexico,

位于墨西哥山谷的 特奥蒂瓦坎市（Teotihuacan）

with a population of around 100,000 people,

有大约 10 万人口，

turned its back on pyramid temples and human sacrifices

它抛弃了金字塔寺庙 和活人祭祀，

and reconstituted itself

并重新组成了一个

as a vast collection of comfortable villas housing most of the city's population.

容纳了该市大部分人口的 庞大的舒适别墅群。

When archaeologists first investigated these buildings,

当考古学家第一次 调查这些建筑时，

they assumed they were palaces.

他们以为它们是宫殿。

Then they realized that just about everyone in the city

然后他们意识到， 城里几乎每个人都住在

was living in a palace with spacious patios

有宽敞的天井 和地下排水系统的宫殿里，

and subfloor drainages,

gorgeous murals on the walls.

墙上还有华丽的壁画。

But we shouldn't get carried away.

但我们不应该得意忘形。

None of the societies that I've been describing

我所描述过的社会 没有一个是完全平等的。

was perfectly egalitarian.

But then we might also remember that fifth-century Athens,

我们可能还记得， 被视为民主诞生地的五世纪的雅典

which we look to as the birthplace of democracy,

was also a militaristic society founded on chattel slavery,

也是个建立在动产奴隶制 之上的军国主义社会，

where women were completely excluded from politics.

妇女被完全排除在政治之外。

So maybe by comparison,

因此，或许相比之下，

somewhere like Teotihuacan was not doing so badly

像特奥蒂瓦坎这样的地方

at keeping the genie of inequality in its bottle.

在把不平等的精灵关在瓶子里 这方面做得还不错。

But maybe we can just forget about all that, we can look away.

但也许我们可以忘掉这一切， 转移我们的视线。

Perhaps all of these things I'm talking about are basically outliers.

也许我所说的所有这些 都是极端情况。

Maybe we can still keep our familiar story of civilization intact.

也许我们能完好无损地保留 我们所熟悉的文明故事。

And after all,

毕竟，

if cities without rulers were really such a common thing in human history,

如果没有统治者的城市 在人类历史上真的是如此普遍，

why didn't Cortéz and Pizarro and all the other conquistadors

为什么科尔特斯（Cortéz） 和皮萨罗（Pizarro）等征服者

find any when they began their invasion of the Americas?

入侵美洲时 没有发现这些城市呢?

Why did they find only Moctezuma and Atahualpa

为什么他们只发现了莫特祖马（Moctezuma） 和阿塔瓦尔帕（Atahualpa）

lording it over their empires?

在统治着他们的帝国呢？

Except that's not true either.

但这也不是真的。

Actually, the city where Hernan Cortéz found his military allies,

事实上，赫尔南·科尔特斯 在阿兹特克的首都特诺奇蒂特兰

the ones who enabled his successful assault

找到了他的军事盟友，

on the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán,

这些军事盟友 使他成功地攻击了

was exactly one such city without rulers:

这样一个没有统治者的城市：

an indigenous republic by the name of Tlaxcala,

一个名为特拉斯卡拉（Tlaxcala） 的土著共和国，

governed by an urban parliament,

它由一个城市议会管理，

which had some pretty interesting initiation rituals

这里为未来的政治家 举行非常有趣的入会仪式。

for would-be politicians.

They'd be periodically whipped

选民们会定期 鞭笞和公共虐待他们

and subject to public abuse by their constituents

to sort of break down their egos and remind them who's really in charge.

以打破他们的自尊， 提醒他们谁才是真正的掌权人。

It's a little bit different from what we expect of our politicians today.

这与我们今天 对政治家的期望有些不同。

And archaeologists, by the way, have also worked at this place Tlaxcala,

顺便说一句，考古学家们 也在特拉斯卡拉这个地方工作，

excavating the remains of the pre-conquest city,

挖掘被征服前的城市遗迹，

and what they found there is really remarkable.

他们在那里发现了 非常了不起的东西。

Again, the most impressive architecture is not temples and palaces.

同样，最令人印象深刻的建筑 不是寺庙和宫殿。

It's just the well-appointed residences of ordinary citizens

只是设施齐全的普通市民住宅，

arrayed along these grand terraces overlooking district plazas.

沿着这些宏伟的露台排列， 俯瞰着地区广场。

And it's not just the history of cities

现代考古科学正在 颠覆的不仅仅是城市历史。

that modern archaeological science is turning on its head.

We also know now that the history of human societies

我们现在也知道，

before the coming of agriculture

在农业出现之前，

is just nothing like what we once imagined.

人类社会的历史完全 不像我们曾经想象的那样。

Far from this idea of people living all the time

与人们一直生活在 狩猎采集者的小群体的想法不同，

in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers,

actually, what we see these days

事实上，我们现在看到的是

is evidence for a really wild variety of social experimentation

各种各样的社会实验的证据，

before the coming of farming.

在农业出现之前。

In Africa,

在非洲， 5 万年之前，

50,000 years ago,

hunter-gatherers were already creating huge networks,

狩猎采集者已建立了巨大的网络，

social networks, covering large parts of the continent.

社交网络， 覆盖了非洲大陆的大部分地区。

In Ice Age Europe, 25,000 years ago,

在 25000 年前冰河时代的欧洲，

we see evidence of individuals singled out for special grand burials,

我们看到证据表明，被挑选出来 人进行特殊而盛大葬礼。

their bodies suffused with ornamentation,

他们的身体布满了装饰品，

weapons and even what looked like regalia.

武器，甚至看起来像是王徽。

We see public buildings constructed on the bones and tusks of woolly mammoth.

我们看到公共建筑 建在长毛象的骨头和象牙上。

And around 11,000 years ago,

大约 11000 年前，

back in the Middle East, where I started,

在中东，我开始的地方，

hunter-gatherers constructed enormous stone temples

狩猎采集者建造了巨大的石头寺庙，

at a place called Göbekli Tepe in eastern Turkey.

在土耳其东部一个叫哥贝克力的地方。

In North America,

在北美，

long before the coming of maize farming,

早在玉米种植出现之前，

indigenous populations created the massive earthworks of poverty point

土著居民建造了大量的土方工程

in Louisiana,

在路易斯安那州的贫困地区，

capable of hosting hunter gatherer publics in their thousands.

能够容纳成千上万的狩猎采集者。

And then Japan, again, long before the arrival of rice farming,

然后在日本，再次， 早在水稻种植到来之前，

the storehouses of Sannai Maruyama could already hold great surpluses

三奈丸山的仓库就可以储存

of wild plant foods.

大量的野生植物食物。

Now what do all these details amount to?

那么这些细节意味着什么呢?

What does it all mean?

这一切意味着什么?

Well, at the very least, I'd suggest

好吧，至少，我想说，

it's really a bit far-fetched these days to cling to this notion

现在坚持这种观念真的有点牵强，

that the invention of agriculture meant a departure from some egalitarian Eden.

农业的发明意味着 脱离平等主义的伊甸园。

Or to cling to the idea that small-scale societies

或者坚持认为小规模社会 尤其可能会是平等的，

are especially likely to be egalitarian,

while large-scale ones must necessarily have kings,

虽然大型社会必须有国王， 总统和自上而下的管理结构。

presidents and top-down structures of management.

And there are also some contemporary implications.

也还有一些现代意义。

Take, for example, the commonplace notion

举个例子来说， 这是一个常见的概念，

that participatory democracy is somehow natural in a small community.

在一个小社区中，参与式民主 在某种程度上是自然而然发生的。

Or perhaps an activist group,

或者可能是一个活动家团体，

but couldn't possibly have a scale up for anything like a city,

但其规模不可能达到一个城市， 一个国家，甚至一个地区那么大，

a nation or even a region.

Well, actually, the evidence of human history,

事实上，有关人类历史的证据，

if we're prepared to look at it,

如果我们愿意看的话，

suggests the opposite.

所表明情况是恰恰相反。

If cities and regional confederacies,

如果城市和地区结盟，

held together mostly by consensus and cooperation

通过协商和合作建立起来，

existed thousands of years ago,

存在于数千年前的话，

who's to stop us creating them again today

那么今天谁能阻止我们 再次创造它们，

with technologies that allow us to overcome the friction

运用能够让我们跨越 距离和数字障碍的技术？

of distance and numbers?

Perhaps it's not too late to begin learning from all this new evidence

也许现在还不晚，

开始学习有关人类过去的新证据，

of the human past,

even to begin imagining

甚至可以开始想象，

what other kinds of civilization we might create

我们可能会创造出其他类型的文明，

if we can just stop telling ourselves

如果我们能停止告诉自己

that this particular world is the only one possible.

这个特定的世界是唯一的可能。

Thank you very much.

谢谢大家。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）