【教书匠阿伦-外刊精读】每天学点社会学：社会的类型

作者: 教书匠阿伦 | 来源:发表于2019-10-01 12:40 被阅读0次

The society we live in did not spring up overnight; human societies have evolved slowly over many millennia. However, throughout history, technological developments have sometimes brought about dramatic change that has propelled human society into its next age.

我们所生活的社会不是一蹴而就的；经过了长达千年的缓慢进化与发展，人类社会才呈现出如今的面貌。然而，纵观历史，我们发现，技术的发展会给社会带来巨大的变革，推动人类社会不断进入下一个新阶段。

Hunting and Gathering Societies

狩猎与采集社会

Hunting And Gathering Societies survive by hunting game and gathering edible plants. Until about 12,000 years ago, all societies were hunting and gathering societies.

狩猎与采集社会依赖捕猎野味和采集可食用果实生存。狩猎与采集社会可追溯到大约一万两千年前，是当时的普遍社会形态。

There are five basic characteristics of hunting and gathering societies:

狩猎与采集社会有如下五个基本特征：

The primary institution is the family, which decides how food is to be shared and how children are to be socialized, and which provides for the protection of its members.

•以家庭为主要单位，进行食物分配，培养孩童的社会化技能，对家庭成员提供保护。

They tend to be small, with fewer than fifty members.

•社会群体较小，通常在50人以下。

They tend to be nomadic, moving to new areas when the current food supply in a given area has been exhausted.

•以游牧民族为主，某一地区的粮食消耗殆尽后，人们会迁移到新的地区寻找食物。

Members display a high level of interdependence.

•社会成员之间紧密结合，高度依赖。

Labor division is based on sex: men hunt, and women gather.

•以性别为标准进行劳动分工：男性狩猎，女性采集。

The First Social Revolution—the domestication of plants and animals—led to the birth of the horticultural and pastoral societies.

第一次社会革命——动植物驯化——推动了园艺社会与畜牧社会的诞生。

Twilight Of The Hunter-Gatherers

狩猎采集者的消失

Hunting and gathering societies are slowly disappearing, as the encroachment of civilization destroys the land they depend on. The Pygmies in Africa are one of the few remaining such societies.

新的社会文明破坏了狩猎与采集社会赖以生存的土地资源，迫使狩猎与采集社会逐渐退出历史舞台。非洲的俾格米人是目前世界上仅存的少数保留这类社会形态的民族之一。

Horticultural Societies

园艺社会

In a Horticultural Society, hand tools are used to tend crops. The first horticultural societies sprang up about 10,000–12,000 years ago in the most fertile areas of the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The tools they used were simple: sticks or hoe-like instruments used to punch holes in the ground so that crops could be planted. With the advent of horticultural machinery, people no longer had to depend on the gathering of edible plants—they could now grow their own food. They no longer had to leave an area when the food supply was exhausted, as they could stay in one place until the soil was depleted.

园艺社会中，人们使用手工工具种植农作物。最早的园艺社会可追溯到大约一万至一万两千年前，出现在中东、拉丁美洲和亚洲最富饶的地区。人们使用的工具很简单：他们用棍棒或锄头之类的工具在土地上打孔，然后种植庄稼。随着园艺机械技术的出现，人们不再需要采集可食用果实来填饱肚子——他们可以自己种植食物。而且，当一个地方的原生食物消耗殆尽后，他们也不再需要迁移到另一个地方寻找食物，因为园艺社会以土壤为生存条件，只要土壤仍能为他们所用，他们就可以在这里一直生活下去。

Pastoral Societies

畜牧社会

A Pastoral Society relies on the domestication and breeding of animals for food. Some geographic regions, such as the desert regions of North Africa, cannot support crops, so these societies learned how to domesticate and breed animals. The members of a pastoral society must move only when the grazing land ceases to be usable. Many pastoral societies still exist in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia.

畜牧社会通过驯养动物和动物繁殖来获得食物。一些地理区域，比如北非的沙漠地区，不具备种植农作物的条件，于是这里的人们便学会了动物驯养及动物繁殖之术。畜牧社会的人只有在牧场不能再用时，他们才会选择迁徙到其他地方。非洲、拉丁美洲和亚洲部分地区目前仍保留着畜牧社会形态。

Job Specialization

工作专门化

As techniques for raising crops and domesticating and breeding animals improved, societies began to produce more food than they needed. Societies also became larger and more permanently rooted to one location. For the first time in human history, not everyone was engaged in the gathering or production of food. As a result, job specialization emerged. While some people farmed or raised animals, others produced crafts, became involved in trade, or provided such goods as farming tools or clothing.

随着农作物种植、动物驯养和动物繁殖技术的发展，社会生产的食物不再仅仅满足于其日常生活需要。社会规模不断扩大，人们也更倾向于在一个地方扎根稳定下来。人类历史上，首次出现了食物采集和生产之外的富余人力。于是，工作专门化得以诞生。随后，社会便呈现出工作的多样化，有人从事动物养殖，有人从事工艺品制作，有人从事物品贸易，有人从事农具、服装生产。

Agricultural Societies

农业社会

The invention of the plow during the horticultural and pastoral societies is considered the Second Social Revolution, and it led to the establishment of agricultural societies approximately five thousand to six thousand years ago. Members of an Agricultural or Agrarian Society tend crops with an animal harnessed to a plow. The use of animals to pull a plow eventually led to the creation of cities and formed the basic structure of most modern societies.

园艺和畜牧社会时期，犁的发明被视为第二次社会革命的标志，它推动了大约五千至六千年前农业社会的建立。农业社会或农耕社会中，人们将犁套在动物身上，让动物协助农业耕种。使用动物拉犁这一举措最终推动了城市的建立，现代社会的基本结构初具雏形。

The development of agricultural societies followed this general sequence:

农业社会的发展大致遵循以下顺序:

Animals are used to pull plows.

•使用动物拉犁。

Larger areas of land can then be cultivated.

•可耕种土地面积不断扩大。

As the soil is aerated during plowing, it yields more crops for longer periods of time.

•犁地使空气更好地进入到土壤中，从而使土地在更长的时间内产出了更多的农作物。

Productivity increases, and as long as there is plenty of food, people do not have to move.

•生产率不断提高，食物充足，人们不必频繁迁徙。

Towns form, and then cities.

•城镇发展起来，接着出现城市。

As crop yields are high, it is no longer necessary for every member of the society to engage in some form of farming, so some people begin developing other skills. Job specialization increases.

•随着农作物产量的提高，社会成员不再固守某种农作物的耕种，其他生活技能得以挖掘。工作专门化显现。

Fewer people are directly involved with the production of food, and the economy becomes more complex.

•从事食物耕种的人越来越少，社会经济形态复杂化。

Around this same time, the wheel was invented, along with writing, numbers, and what we would today call the arts. However, the invention of the steam engine—The Third Social Revolution—was what took humans from agricultural to industrial society.

同一时期左右，车轮、文字、数字以及我们今天所说的艺术得以发明。但是，蒸汽机的发明——第三次社会革命的标志——才是最终将人类从农业社会引向工业社会的中坚力量。