谈谈种族的绝灭
读腓力普二世期间拉美的种族绝灭,又想到达尔文论述的种族灭绝。种族灭绝这个
词常听闻,但具体一些的论述却不多见,尤其是耐得住时间考验的。我暂时把这个
问题的感性一面摒弃一下,谈一谈看得见的历史上的种族灭绝,也算是咖啡人类学
的一道论题。
电影不好论,电视更煽情,还是书本来得扎实一些。种族的问题,在中国这种主张
大混血的文化中倒不突出,但世界走向国际,宗教与文化冲突,许多问题去追上你,
避都避不及。记得在亚马逊一只船上与一些人类学家,昆虫学家讨论人类的未来,
都说很可怕。等级制肯定是不得已,另外能否开拓火星,挖地穴,移民海底都是下
一步。要是人口就这么长的化,人道主义只能是调味剂。
达尔文论种族绝灭,一开篇就引用洪堡举的例,我以为很有诗意,便摹写自然笔记
一篇,
自然笔记:绝灭
当一只鹦鹉
还在说着某个部落
某一种语言的
某几个字眼
人,已经绝灭
粗大的建筑物
断碑残碣
木器、石器
已不为他人所识
更没有传说
倘或有些残余
零落的部民
存活于穷山僻壤之间
不复记忆
昨天在Joey的贴子下引了一段英文,早先殖民时代的原住民悲剧。矿产?钻石黄金
白银,Potosi,我还是原样照搬到这里:
By the time the labour structure in the Indies was collpsing, not under
the pressure for reform but under the impact of demographic catastrophe.
As Spaniards penetrated the remote territories they brought with them
new viruses, particularly smallpox, to which the natives had no immunity
and which caused devastating epidemics. The unaccustomed labour
obligations (for Las Casas, ‘the greatest evil which has caused the total
destruction of those lands…is the encomienda’), the wholesale disruption
of communities, the cruelties of the Spaniards(the Franciscan Motolinia,
one of the ‘twelve’ who came to Mexico in 1524, gave a grim catalogue
of mines where you could not walk for the bones of dead Indians and
where the skies were darkened by scavenging vultures), all had their
effect. In central Mexico the Indian population declined rapidly from
about 25.2 million in 1518 to 2.65m in 1568 and just over one million in
1605; in Peru a preconquest population of about nine million fell to some
600,000 in 1620. As the work-force shrank, the encomiendas became
impractical: the authorities stepped in and organised a system, known in
Mexico as the repartimiento and in Peru by the pre-Spanish term mita,
by which available labour was leased out to estate owners for limited
periods.
Encomienda, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encomienda
Repartimiento, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repartimiento
Mita, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mita_(Inca)
这些看起来有点危言耸听,世界局部的种族绝灭,近现代一样有,犹太人在文明世
界中最倒霉,文明世界有他们首创之功。当代也不是没有,不止是原住民,宗教冲
突,种族灭绝,虽然是局部的。
我喜欢具体一些的事例,而不是情感臆象愤发。列维-斯特劳斯在巴西亚马逊探访的
那些原住民,当时就频临灭绝,现在土地都没有了。如果是都要城里去打工了还好,
但南美那经济状况,谈保护原住民也是奢侈。
to be continued…