Zeresenay Alemseged: Finding the origins of humanity

翻译人员: Zhijun Wang 校对人员: Jinming Sha

I have 18 minutes to tell you what happened

在接下来的18分钟里，我要向你们讲述

over the past six million years.

过去六百万年内发生的事情。

All right.

开始吧。

We all have come from a long way,

我们都经历了漫长的历程，

here in Africa, and converged in this region of Africa,

在非洲这里，在非洲这一地区相聚，

which is a place where 90 percent of our evolutionary process took place.

这里是我们90%的进化过程的发生之地。

And I say that not because I am African,

我这么说的原因不是因为我是个非洲人，

but it's in Africa that you find the earliest evidence

而是因为在非洲，你可以找到

for human ancestors, upright walking traces,

关于人类祖先的最早证据、直立行走的痕迹、

even the first technologies in the form of stone tools.

甚至是最早的科技──石器。

So we all are Africans, and welcome home.

所以我们都是非洲人。欢迎你们回家。

All right.

好的。

I'm a paleoanthropologist, and my job is to define

我是一名古人类学家，我的职责是去定义

man's place in nature and explore what makes us human.

人类在大自然中的地位，并且探究人类的本质，

And today, I will use Selam, the earliest child ever discovered,

今天我就要通过塞拉姆(Selam)──至今发现的最远古的小孩──

to tell you a story of all of us.

来讲述一个关于我们所有人的故事。

Selam is our most complete skeleton of a three-year-old girl

塞拉姆是我们所拥有的最完整的三岁小女孩的骨骼，

who lived and died 3.3 million years ago.

她生活在330万年前。

She belongs to the species known as Australopithecus afarensis.

她属于南方古猿阿法种，

You don't need to remember that.

你不需要记住这个。

That's the Lucy species, and was found by my research team

那也是露西的种族，是由我的研究小组

in December of 2000 in an area called Dikika.

在2000年的12月份在一个叫做Dikika的地方发现的。

It's in the northeastern part of Ethiopia.

是在埃塞俄比亚的东北部。

And Selam means peace in many Ethiopian languages.

塞拉姆在很多埃塞俄比亚语言中都代表着“和平”。

We use that name to celebrate peace in the region and in the planet.

我们选用了这个名字来庆祝这一区域和这个星球上的和平。

And the fact that it was the cover story of all these famous magazines

这些著名杂志都用其作为头版头条，

gives you already an idea of her significance, I think.

这一点就可以告诉你其重要性了。

After I was invited by TED, I did some digging,

在受到TED的邀请之后，我决定做一点“钻研”（一词双意：digging既指“研究”，又指“挖掘”。）

because that's what we do, to know about my host.

来进一步了解TED，毕竟我是干这一行的。

You don't just jump into an invitation.

不能茫然地接受邀请。

And I learned that the first technology appeared

通过我的研究，我发现最早的“科技”(T=Technology)

in the form of stone tools, 2.6 million years ago.

是260万年前的石器，

First entertainment comes evidence from flutes that are 35,000 years old.

最早的“娱乐”(E=Entertainment)来自35000年前的笛子，

And evidence for first design comes 75,000 years old -- beads.

而最早的“设计”(D=Design)则有75000年的历史──是珠子。

And you can do the same with your genes and track them back in time.

你也可以用同样的办法追溯你的基因的历史。

And DNA analysis of living humans and chimpanzees

而对现存的人类和猩猩的研究

teaches us today that we diverged sometime around seven million years ago

告诉我们大概在7百万年前，人类和猩猩分道扬镳，

and that these two species share over 98 percent of the same genetic material.

至今这两个物种仍然有98%的共同基因。

I think knowing this is a very useful context

我认为，了解这些为我们对祖先的研究

within which we can think of our ancestry.

提供了非常有用的背景资料。

However, DNA analysis informs us only about

不过，这些研究只告诉了我们开始和结局，

the beginning and the end, telling us nothing

却没有告诉

about what happened in the middle.

其中都经历了什么。

So, for us, paleoanthropologists, our job is to find the hard evidence,

而对于我们古人类学家而言，我们的工作就是找到确凿的证据，

the fossil evidence, to fill in this gap

化石证据，来填补其中的空白，

and see the different stages of development.

呈现发展过程中的各个阶段。

Because it's only when you do that, that you can talk about --

只有做到这一点之后，你才可以讨论...

(Laughter) --

（笑声）

it's only when you do that, [that] you can talk about

只有做到这一点之后，你才可以讨论

how we looked like and how we behaved at different times,

在不同时期我们的相貌和我们的行为，

and how those likes and looks and behaviors changed through time.

以及这些喜好、相貌和行为如何随着时间的流逝而变化，

That then gives you an access

那时这就可以给我们一个

to explore the biological mechanisms

探索这样的生命机制，

and forces that are responsible for this gradual change

正是这些机制和力量逐渐

that made us what we are today.

把我们变成今天这个样子。

But finding the hard evidence is a very complicated endeavor.

但是找到确凿的证据是一件非常复杂的任务。

It's a systematic and scientific approach,

这是一个系统和科学方法，

which takes you to places that are remote, hot, hostile and often with no access.

来带你去很遥远、炎热、危险并常常无法进入的地方。♫♫

Just to give you an example, when I went to Dikika,

比如，当我们去Dikika，

where Selam was found, in '99 -- and it's about 500 kilometers

也就是塞勒姆99年被发现的地方，那里离Addis Ababa

from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

埃塞俄比亚的首都约有500公里。

It took us only seven hours to do the first 470 kilometers of the 500,

500公里的前470公里只花了我们7小时的时间，

but took four, solid hours to do the last only 30 kilometers.

但其后的30个小时足足花了我们整整4个小时。

With the help of the locals and using just shovels and picks, I made my way.

在当地人的帮助之下，使用锹和镐，我开辟了了一条路。

I was the first person to actually drive a car to the spot.

我算是开车到这个地方的第一个人。

When you get there, this is what you see,

当你到那儿的时候，这就是你所看到的，

and it's the vastness of the place which makes you feel helpless and vulnerable.

这片区域的广袤让你感到自身的无助和脆弱。

And once you make it there, the big question is where to start.

一旦你到了那里，最大的问题就是从哪里开始。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And you find nothing for years and years.

然后你年复一年，什么也找不到。

When I go to places like this, which are paleontological sites,

当我去这样的古人类学研究现场时，

it's like going to a game park, an extinct game park.

就像是去一家游乐园，一家灭绝的游乐园。

But what you find are not the human remains,

但是你找到的并不是在通常意义上存在的人类，

such as Selam and Lucy, on a day-to-day basis.

就像是塞勒姆和露西。

You find elephants, rhinos, monkeys, pigs, etc.

你找到的是大象，犀牛，猴子，野猪等等。

But you could ask, how could these large mammals

但你可能会问，这样大型的动物

live in this desert environment?

如何能够生存在这样的沙漠环境中？

Of course, they cannot, but I'm telling you already

他们当然不能，但我已经告诉你的是

that the environment and the carrying capacity

这个环境及这个地区的承载能力已经与我们今天

of this region was drastically different from what we have today.

的情况产生了急剧的变化。

A very important environmental lesson could be learned from this.

我们可以从这里学到一堂非常重要的生态课程。

Anyway, once we made it there, then it's a game park, as I said, an extinct game park.

不管怎样，当我们到了那里，它就是个游乐场，就像我说的那样，一个灭绝的游乐场。

And our ancestors lived in that game park,

而且我们的祖先也生活在那个游乐场，

but were just the minorities. They were not as successful

但我们只是少数派。他们（人类祖先）并不像智人那样

and as widespread as the Homo sapiens that we are.

成功生存而且广泛分布。

To tell you just an example, an anecdote about their rarity,

再给你们举一个例子，一些关于他们稀缺性的奇闻轶事，

I was going to this place every year and would do fieldwork here,

我每年都要去这个地方，去做实地调查，

and the assistants, of course, helped me do the surveys.

当然，我的助手帮助我去做这些调查。

They would find a bone and tell me, "Here is what you're looking for."

他们会找到一块骨头然后告诉我，“这就是你要找的。”

I would say, "No, that's an elephant."

我会说，“不，这是一块大象的骨头。”

Again, another one, "That's a monkey." "That's a pig," etc.

再一次，另外一块——“这是一只猴子的骨头，”“那是一只野猪的骨头，”等等。

So one of my assistants, who never went to school, said to me, "Listen, Zeray.

因此，我的一位从未上过学的助手，对我说，“听着，Zeray。

You either don't know what you're looking for,

你或者不知道你要找什么，

or you're looking in the wrong place," he said.

也不知道你是不是找对地方了，”他说。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And I said, "Why?" "Because there were elephants and lions,

然后我说，“为什么？”因为这里有大象和狮子，

and the people were scared and went somewhere else.

所以人类会恐惧，就搬到其他地方去了。

Let's go somewhere else."

我们去别的地方吧。”

Well, he was very tired, and it's really tiring.

好吧，他非常疲惫，而且这件事真的很让人倦怠。

It was then, after such hard work and many frustrating years that we found Selam,

找到了塞勒姆，经过如此艰苦的工作和令人沮丧的岁月后

and you see the face here covered by sandstone.

你可以看到这里被砂岩覆盖的面孔。

And here is actually the spinal column

这里实际上是嵌在一块砂岩中的

and the whole torso encased in a sandstone block,

脊柱和整个躯体，

because she was buried by a river.

因为她被一条河流所埋葬。

What you have here seems to be nothing,

你现在所拥有的貌似什么都不是，

but contains an incredible amount of scientific information

但包含了大量不可思议的科学讯息，

that helps us explore what makes us human.

能够帮助我们了解是什么让我们成为人类。

This is the earliest and most complete juvenile human ancestor

这是古人类学历史上找到的最早和

ever found in the history of paleoanthropology,

最年少的人类祖先——

an amazing piece of our long, long history.

这段历史是我们长久历史中最叹为观止的片段。

There were these three people and me, and I am taking the pictures,

这是我和其他三个人，我正在拍照，

that's why I am not in.

所以我不在镜头中。

How would you feel if you were me? You have something extraordinary in your hand,

如果你是我，你的手中捧着意义非凡的东西，但你却不是中心或焦点，

but you are in the middle of nowhere?

你会怎么想？

The feeling I had was a deep and quiet happiness and excitement,

我的感觉就是，非常深切的快乐和激动，

of course accompanied by a huge sense of responsibility,

当然随之而来的是巨大的责任感，

of making sure everything is safe.

那种要确保所有事都安全（的责任感）。

Here is a close-up of the fossil, after five years of cleaning,

这是一块化石的特写，

preparation and description, which was very long,

它经过了5年的清理、准备和修饰——那时间非常长，

as I had to expose the bones from the sandstone block

而且我需要把骨头从砂岩块中取出来

I just showed you in the previous slide.

那块砂岩我在前一张片子里给大家演示了。

It took five years.

这花费了5年。

In a way, this was like the second birth for the child, after 3.3 million years,

在某种程度下，这就像是这个孩子在330万年之后的第二次重生，

but the labor was very long.

但是劳动的时间很长。

And here is full scale -- it's a tiny bone.

这里是一个完整的——这是一块小骨头。

And in the middle is the minister of Ethiopian tourism,

中间这个是埃塞俄比亚的旅游部长，

who came to visit the National Museum of Ethiopia while I was working there.

当我在埃塞俄比亚的国家博物馆工作的时候，他造访了那里。

And you see me worried and trying to protect my child,

你可以看到我很担心，试图保护我的孩子，

because you don't leave anyone with this kind of child,

因为你不会把那样的孩子留给任何人，

even a minister.

即使是一个部长。

So then, once you've done that, the next stage is to know what it is.

所以，一旦你那样做了，下一步就是弄明白那样的行为是什么意思。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Once that was done, then it was possible to compare.

一旦工作完成了，就有进行比较的可能性了。

We were able to tell that she belonged

我们能够告诉大家的是她属于

to the human family tree because the legs, the foot,

人类的大家庭，因为她的腿、脚、

and some features clearly showed that she walked upright,

和其他一些特征很明显的显示了她直立行走，

and upright walking is a hallmark in humanity.

而直立行走是人类的专属标志。

But in addition, if you compare the skull

不过另外，如果你你把这个头骨与

with a comparably aged chimpanzee and little George Bush here,

一个对等年龄的黑猩猩以及这里的小布什（美国第54届总统）相比，

you see that you have vertical forehead.

你们可以看到有垂直的额头，

And you see that in humans, because of the development

这是在人类中，由于所谓的

of the pre-frontal cortex, it's called.

大脑前叶的发展所造成的——

You don't see that in chimpanzees,

而你在黑猩猩的身上看不到这一点，

and you don't see this very projecting canine.

而且你也看不到这样突出的犬齿。

So she belongs to our family tree, but within that, of course,

所以她属于我们这一族谱，当然，随着我们

you do detailed analysis, and we know now

进行了详细的分析，我们现在知道

that she belongs to the Lucy species,

她属于“露西”一族，这一族

known as Australopithecus afarensis.

被称做阿法南方古猿。

The next exciting question is, girl or boy?

下一个令人激动的问题是女孩还是男孩，

And how old was she when she died?

当她死亡的时候有多大？

You can determine the sex of the individual

你可以根据牙齿的大小判断

based on the size of the teeth.

一个人的性别。

How?

怎么做到？

You know, in primates, there is this phenomenon

大家知道，在灵长类动物中，有一种现象

called sexual dimorphism, which simply means

叫做两性异型，简单来讲就是

males are larger than females and males have larger teeth

男性要比女性要大一些，

than the females.

男性的牙齿要比女性更大。

But to do that, you need the permanent dentition,

不过要做到那一点，你需要找到恒齿，

which you don't see here, because what you have here

我们在这里看不到，因为我们所有的是

are the baby teeth.

婴儿的牙齿。

But using the CT scanning technology,

但使用CT扫描技术，

which is normally used for medical purposes,

即常用于医学目的的那种——

you can go deep into the mouth and come up with this beautiful image

你可以深入口腔，获取那些既可以显示婴儿牙齿

showing you both the baby teeth here

又可以显示正在生长的成人牙齿

and the still-growing adult teeth here.

的美丽图像。

So when you measure those teeth,

所以当我们测量这些牙齿时，

it was clear that she turned out to be a girl

就这么小的犬齿来看，很明显

with very small canine teeth.

她是个女孩。

And to know how old she was when she died, what you do is

要想知道她死时有多少岁，你能够做的

you do an informed estimate, and you say, how much time would be required

就是去做一个可靠的估计，你要知道形成这个牙齿要花多长时间，

to form this amount of teeth, and the answer was three.

我们的答案就是三岁。

So, this girl died when she was about three,

因此这个女孩在约三岁时夭折了，

3.3 million years ago.

距今330万年。

So, with all that information, the big question is --

因此有了这么多信息，最大的问题就是——

what do we actually -- what does she tell us?

我们实际上——她告诉了我们什么事情？

To answer this question, we can phrase another question.

要回答这个问题，我们可以引用另一个问题——

What do we actually know about our ancestors?

关于我们的祖先我们究竟了解多少？

We want to know how they looked like, how they behaved,

我们想了解他们长相如何，行为如何，

how they walked around,

如何行走，

and how they lived and grew up.

以及它们如何生活和成长。

And among the answers that you can get from this skeleton

你可以从这具骨骼中找到的答案已经

are included: first, this skeleton documents,

囊括了以上的疑问——首先，这句骨骼首次记录了

for the first time, how infants looked over three million years ago.

距今300万年前的孤儿长什么样儿。

And second, she tells us that she walked upright,

其次，她告诉了我们她是直立行走的，

but had some adaptation for tree climbing.

不过仍具有一些爬树的适应性

And more interesting, however,

更令人觉得有趣的是，然而，

is the brain in this child was still growing.

这个孩子的大脑仍然在成长。

At age three, if you have a still-growing brain,

三岁时，如果你的大脑还在成长，

it's a human behavior.

这就属于人类的特征了。

In chimps, by age three, the brain is formed over 90 percent.

三岁的黑猩猩，其大脑已经90%成型。

That's why they can cope with their environment

这正是它们在出生以后很快就能适应环境

very easily after birth -- faster than us, anyway.

的原因——无论怎样，适应的比我们快。

But in humans, we continue to grow our brains.

反观人类，我们则继续进行脑部发育。

That's why we need care from our parents.

这也是我们为何需要父母照顾的原因。

But that care means also you learn.

不过这种照看意味着你还在不断学习成长。

You spend more time with your parents.

你跟父母在一起的时间更长。

And that's very characteristic of humans and it's called childhood,

这是人类的典型特点，它叫做童年，

which is this extended dependence of human children

即人类儿童对其家庭或父母的

on their family or parents.

更长久的依赖。

So, the still-growing brain in this individual

所以这个孩子正在成长的大脑

tells us that childhood, which requires

告诉我们她的童年开始于

an incredible social organization,

300多万年前，而这需要

a very complex social organization,

一个不可思议的社会组织，

emerged over three million years ago.

一个非常复杂的社会组织。

So, by being at the cusp of our evolutionary history,

因此在我们进化历史的顶端，

Selam unites us all and gives us a unique account

塞勒姆将我们联合起来，给予我们之所以为人的

on what makes us human.

特殊依据。

But not everything was human, and I will give you

不过并不是所有的特征都是人类，我会给你展示

a very exciting example.

一个非常令人激动的例证。

This is called the hyoid bone. It's a bone which is right here.

这个叫做舌骨。它就是长在这里的骨头。

It supports your tongue from behind.

它从后部支撑着你的舌头。

It's, in a way, your voice box.

在某种意义上，它是你的音箱。

It determines the type of voice you produce.

它决定了你发出的声音类型。

It was not known in the fossil record,

在化石记录里，它并不出名，

and we have it in this skeleton.

我们在这具骨骼上发现了它。

When we did the analysis of this bone, it was clear

当我们对这块骨头进行分析时，很明显发现，

that it looked very chimp-like, chimpanzee-like.

它非常像黑猩猩（的舌骨）。

So if you were there 3.3 million years ago,

因此，如果你处于330万年前，

to hear when this girl was crying out for her mother,

听这个女孩哭喊着找妈妈时，

she would have sounded more like a chimpanzee than a human.

她听起来会更像黑猩猩而非人类。

Maybe you're wondering, "So, you see this ape feature, human feature, ape feature.

可能你在想，“那么你看到了猿类的特征，人类的特征，猿类的特征。

What does that tell us?"

它到底对我们意味着什么？”

You know, that is very exciting for us,

你要知道，那对我们来说实在激动人心，

because it demonstrates that things were changing slowly and progressively,

因为它说明了事物是缓慢且不断前进的变化着的，

and that evolution is in the making.

进化正在发生。

To summarize the significance of this fossil,

来总结一下这个化石的重要性，

we can say the following.

我们可以谈到以下几点。

Up to now, the knowledge that we had about our ancestors

迄今为止，我们拥有的关于我们祖先的知识

came essentially from adult individuals

基本上来自于成年人的化石，因为

because the fossils, the baby fossils, were missing.

婴儿的化石是缺失的。

They don't preserve well, as you know.

正如你们所知道的，他们不易保存完好。

So the knowledge that we had about our ancestors,

所以我们拥有的关于我们祖先

on how they looked like, how they behaved,

长相如何，行为如何的知识，

was kind of biased toward adults.

只是基于成人的片面观点。

Imagine somebody coming from Mars

想象一下有人从火星而来，

and his job is to report on the type of people

他的工作就是记录并报告统治着地球的

occupying our planet Earth, and you hide all the babies,

人类物种，而我们把所有婴儿、儿童都藏起来了，

the children, and he goes back and reports.

接着他便回去复命。

Can you imagine how much biased his report would be?

你可以想象这个报告将有多大的偏差么？

That's what somehow we were doing so far

这就是在缺少儿童化石的情况下，我们

in the absence of the fossil children,

到目前为止在做的工作，

so I think the new fossil fixes this problem.

因此我认为这些新化石解决了这个问题。

So, I think the most important question at the end is,

所以我觉得最终最重要的问题是，

what do we actually learn from specimens like this

从更普遍的意义上来讲，我们实际上从这样的标本

and from our past in general?

和我们的历史中学到了什么？

Of course, in addition to extracting this huge amount

当然，除了提取到这么大量的科学信息

of scientific information as to what makes us human,

来证明我们之所以成为人类，

you know, the many human ancestors that have existed

很多存在于过去600万年的远古人类祖先——

over the past six million years -- and there are more than 10 --

至少有10个——他们并不具备这些

they did not have the knowledge, the technology and sophistications

我们智人今天所拥有的知识、

that we, Homo sapiens, have today.

技术和方法。

But if this species, ancient species,

不过如果这个物种，远古的物种，

would travel in time and see us today,

会通过时间旅行来看望今天的我们，

they would very much be very proud of their legacy,

他们将会为他们所留的遗产而倍感骄傲，

because they became the ancestors of

因为他们是当前宇宙中最成功

the most successful species in the universe.

物种的祖先。

And they were probably not aware of this future legacy,

他们可能并不知道他们未来的遗产，

but they did great.

不过他们确实很伟大。

Now the question is, we Homo sapiens today

现在问题是，我们今天这些智人

are in a position to decide about the future of our planet, possibly more.

正担负着决定我们的星球未来的责任，或者有可能责任更大。

So the question is, are we up to the challenge?

所以问题是，我们准备好去挑战了么？

And can we really do better than these primitive,

我们真的能比这些先驱者、脑容量小的祖先

small-brained ancestors?

做得更好么？

Among the most pressing challenges that our species

我们的物种今日所面临的最有挑战性的问题是

is faced with today are the chronic problems of Africa.

非洲长期存在的问题。

Needless to list them here, and there are more competent people

无需去列举，已经有很多智者

to talk about this.

讨论过这些。

Still, in my opinion, we have two choices.

然而，我认为，我们有两种选择。

One is to continue to see a poor, ill, crying Africa,

一是维持一个贫穷、病痛、哭泣的非洲——

carrying guns, that depends on other people forever,

手握武器——永远依赖着他人，

or to promote an Africa which is confident,

或是推动一个更加自信、

peaceful, independent, but cognizant of its huge problems

和平、独立，但同时能够认识到它自身面临的巨大问题和

and great values at the same time.

巨大价值的非洲。

I am for the second option, and I'm sure many of you are.

我支持第二种选择，而且我确信我们大多数人是这样想的。

And the key is to promote a positive African attitude towards Africa.

关键是推动起一个对非洲更加积极的非洲精神。

That's because we Africans concentrate --

因为我们非洲关注于——

I am from Ethiopia, by the way --

顺便说一下，我来自埃塞俄比亚——

we concentrate too much on how we are seen

我们太关注于别人怎么

from elsewhere, or from outside.

看我们和理解我们。

I think it's important to promote in a more positive way

我认为重要的是我们应以一个更积极的态度

on how we see ourselves.

来看待我们自己。

That's what I call positive African attitude.

这就是我所说的非洲——积极的非洲精神。

So finally, I would like to say,

最后，我想说，

so let's help Africa walk upright and forward,

就让我们帮助非洲站起来，向前走——

then we all can be proud of our future legacy as a species.

那时，作为同一个物种，我们都会为我们留给未来的遗产而骄傲。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）