當(dāng)一個家族與另一個家族展開斗爭時,就成了一個世代的恩怨。
When lots of families fight with one another in identical little towns up and down in the same mountain range, it's a pattern.
一個山區(qū)同一小鎮(zhèn)的許多家庭相互爭斗已成為一種模式。
What was the cause of the Appalachian pattern?
是什么引發(fā)阿巴拉契亞的爭斗?
Over the years, many potential causes have been examined and debated, and the consensus appears to be that the region was plagued by a particularly virulent strain of what sociologists call a "culture of honor."
多年來,人們不斷地尋找并討論許多潛在的原因,最終達成了共識:似乎該地區(qū)受到了某種特別的病毒蔓延的折磨,社會學(xué)家稱之為“榮譽文化”。
Cultures of honor tend to take root in highlands and other marginally fertile areas, like Sicily or the mountainous Basque regions of Spain.
榮譽文化往往扎根于高原和其他邊境領(lǐng)土地區(qū),如意大利西西里島或西班牙的巴斯克地區(qū)。
If you live on some rocky mountainside, the explanation goes, you can't farm.
如果你住在一些山區(qū),也就是說,你沒法有農(nóng)場,
You probably raise goats or sheep, and the kind of culture that grows up around being a herdsman is very different from the culture that grows up around growing crops.
你可能會養(yǎng)山羊或綿羊,但作為牧民所發(fā)展出來的文化與種植莊稼的農(nóng)民的文化是不同的。
The survival of a farmer depends on the coorperation of others in the community.
一個農(nóng)民的生存依靠社區(qū)與他人的合作,
But a herdsman is off by himself.
但是牧民卻自我封閉。
Farmers also don't have to worry that their livelihood would be stolen in the night, because crops can't easily be stolen
農(nóng)民不必擔(dān)心他們維持生計的東西會在某天晚上被盜,因為農(nóng)作物不能輕易被盜,
unless, of course, a thief wants to go to the trouble of harvesting an entire field all on his own.
除非小偷想獨自收割全部的收成。
But a herdsman does.
但是,牧民卻有擔(dān)憂,
He's under constant threat of ruin through the lost of his animals. So he has to be aggressive:
他很清楚,他需要通過他的言行證明他不是弱者。
he has to make it clear, through his words and deeds, that he is not weak.
他很清楚,需要通過他的言行證明他不是弱者。
He has to be willing to fight in response to even the slightest challenge to his reputation, and that's what the "culture of honor means."
為了他的聲譽,他愿意接受并回應(yīng)來自外界的任何挑戰(zhàn),哪怕是極其微小的挑戰(zhàn),這就是所謂的“榮譽文化”的意義。
It's a word where a man's reputation is at the center of his livelihood and self-worth.
在這個世界上,個人的生計和自我價值是榮譽的中心。
"The critical moment in the development of the young shepherd's reputation is his first quarrel," the ethnographer J. K. Campbell writes of one herding culture in Greece.
“對年輕的牧羊人的榮譽發(fā)展而言,第一次爭執(zhí)是關(guān)鍵時刻,”JK的民族志學(xué)者坎貝爾寫了一個關(guān)于希臘牧群文化:
"Quarrels are necessarily public.
“爭執(zhí)必然是在公眾場合。
They may occur in a coffee shop, the village square, or most frequently, on a grazing boundery where a curse or stone aimed at one of his straying sheep by another shepherd is an insult which inevitably requires a violent response."
他們可能會發(fā)生在咖啡館,在村廣場,最常見的是在牧區(qū)邊界,一個牧羊人詛咒或用一塊石頭瞄準一只走失的羊,對于這種侮辱,不可避免地會召至一場暴力回應(yīng)。”