Chapter 4 Chapter 1 The Prefigured Culture of the Past and the Learned Elders

Pre-figurative culture, co-figurative culture and post-figurative culture are three different types of culture that I distinguish, and this distinction is a true reflection of the historical stage in which human beings live.Pre-figurative culture means that the younger generation mainly learns from the elders; co-figurative culture means that the learning of both the younger generation and the elders takes place among peers, and post-figurative culture means that the elders learn from the younger generation in turn.Primitive societies and those small religious and ideological enclaves belong to the original prefigurative culture, whose authority comes from the past.Henceforth, great civilizations, in order to effect large-scale change, need to develop crafts, especially to make use of parallel metaphorical learning among peers, friends, classmates, and brothers.And today we are entering a whole new era in history, where younger generations have gained new authority in their postfigurative understandings of a magical future.

In a prefigurative culture, social change is so slow and subtle that grandparents never imagine that the future of their newborn grandchildren will be different from the life they used to live.The past of the elders is the future of each new generation. They have laid the foundation for the life of the new generation.Children's futures are routine, and what their parents experienced after their unbridled childhood drifted away is what they will experience as adults. Judging from the facts so far, prefigurative culture is the basic characteristic of human society thousands of years ago, or even in the barbaric era.In that period, the elders cannot conceive change, and all they can pass on to their children is the idea that the world is the same.Since there were no written and inscription records at that time, every change had to be assimilated into people's experience and carried out in the memory and behavior patterns of the elders of each generation.Children's basic learning starts very early and is very disordered, and there is no doubt that they completely follow the ideology of their elders, so they can only be the continuation of their elders in body and spirit, and they can only be the land and traditions on which they live childbirth.More importantly, the meaning of their self-identity and destiny is established and irresistible.This situation will only change in the face of some sudden and violent events-such as natural disasters or foreign invasion.Otherwise, even contact with other nationalities will not be able to fundamentally change this unchanging concept: sometimes, the different concepts of different nationalities will strengthen their original special and deep-rooted self-identity concept.Even under certain extreme conditions-such as forced migration, or long-term wandering aimlessly in unfamiliar seas, and finally arriving at a deserted island-this often only strengthens the continuity of their self-conceived ideas.

The continuity of all cultures does depend on at least three generations of grandparents and grandchildren.The basic feature of the prefigurative culture is reflected in every action of the members of the older generation. This feature is that, although there may be changes in one way or another, people's life path is established and can never be changed.In ancient times, due to the short lifespan of people, it was very rare for people of the generation of great-grandparents to live with their offspring at the same time. In fact, even people of the generation of grandparents were rare.Those elders with bright faces are very few in number, but they have the deepest cultural experience, and the recognized way of life is reflected in their voices, smiles and gestures.As such, they have become role models for the younger generation.Their keen eyesight, strong limbs, and tireless diligence have not only continued life but also maintained culture.To keep such a culture alive it is necessary to have an older generation who not only guides the fellowship in times of famine, but who themselves provide a complete pattern of life.When the candles of their lives were about to go out, people sang mournful dirges for their deaths, offered sacrifices, and finally let them sleep in the resting place they had chosen—everyone, according to their age and gender. , knowledge and temperament, exerting their life's efforts to embody the whole culture in which they live.

In such a culture, the form of each object, and the way in which it is manipulated, received, misused, destroyed, or inappropriately worshiped, becomes simultaneously the manner in which all other objects are made and utilized.Each gesture reinforces, evokes, mirrors, or provides the mirror image and resonance of the other, which is a well-established and possibly imperfect way of saying it.Every expression implies another form of expression.After careful analysis, any fragment of cultural behavior has basically the same pattern; in other words, in prefigurative culture, a pattern is predicated on allowing the existence of other patterns that are the same as it.This is especially evident in the very simple cultures of isolated peoples.However, even very complex cultures may still be prefigurative in form, and thus may display all the characteristics of other prefigurative cultures as well: for example, each child in the cultural form is sensitive to social change or the preeminence of printing Art knows nothing.

Of course, the state of change is always dignified and reserved, even just a repetition of a traditional process.Just as no one can step into the same river twice, so certain processes, certain customs, certain beliefs may dissolve into consciousness after they have been exercised a thousand times.The possibility of this change increases when people living in a prefigurative culture have close contacts with people in other cultures.But it further cements their original ideas about the things that make up their culture. In 1925, when Samoans had been in contact with modern culture for 100 years, they still continued to talk about Samoans and Samoan customs, and still taught their children as Samoan children. A person's self-identity and self-concept obtained by comparison with foreign colonists are integrated. In Venezuela in 1940, the Indians within a few kilometers of the city of Maracaibo still hunted with bows and tendons, but they cooked in aluminum pots they stole from Europeans, although they never had anything to do with them any association. In the 1960s, European and American occupying forces overseas and their families were similarly blind and deaf to the “natives”—Germans, Malays, and Vietnamese—who lived outside their bases.This contrasting experience can only deepen each other's sense of group belonging and national identity.

Although prefigurative cultures are closely related to their habitats, the habitats are not necessarily fixed areas that have lived and multiplied for dozens of generations.It can be seen in nomadic peoples who migrate twice a year, in diaspora ethnic groups such as Armenians and Jews, and in the caste system of India (where the Brahmins live in scattered villages where other castes live). to this prefigurative culture.In addition, prefigurative culture can also be seen in some small noble groups and Japanese untouchables.Peoples who once lived in complex societies may forget the motives and reasons that caused them to migrate in search of change in foreign lands, and once established in new lands, they begin to maintain that same old society with their elders. Innate self-awareness.

To officially become a member of such groups requires conversion, initiation and circumcision ceremonies.In prefigurative cultures, all these indispensable activities convey an absolute commitment and immutability from grandparents to their grandchildren.Membership in a group, often by birth, and sometimes by election, is an absolute, unquestionable commitment. The foundation of prefigurative culture is the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren living at the same time. Therefore, the characteristic of prefigurative culture is generational.For cultural continuity, it relies on the expectations that the old place on the young—expectations that are imprinted on the young, on adults being able to feed their children in the same way that parents feed them .In such a society, the majesty of the parents does not receive any mysterious reverence. Living in a changing world, being a father often only plays the role of explaining and explaining the requirements of the ancestors-"My father never Allow me to do this, to do that, and not to do anything at all." Generally speaking, the relationship between grandfather and grandson was harmonious.Therefore, as long as the grandparents are still alive, the fathers cannot obtain their own sacred status, and because of the various precepts between the father and the son, he himself will often suffer from the hostility and constraints of the grandparents and grandchildren.The whole system is like that.It does not depend on descriptions of the past that those descendants who grew up hearing these descriptions as real did not actually live in the past. "Who am I? What is the nature of my life as part of an entire culture, how do I speak, act, feed, inhabit? How do I make love, how do I parent, how do I meet death?" The answer can only be based on pre-determined experience.A person may not be a hero, a parent, and cannot inherit the character and performance from his ancestors, but his failure does not prevent him from being the same as those successful people.Still a member of one's own culture, if suicide is an accepted form of self-destruction, some, if not many, will choose it; form.The universal human drives and effective human defense mechanisms, cognition and apperception, recognition and recall, and the reorganization process of the mind will be integrated here.But the system that embraces all of this is unique and distinct.

In my 40-year research on various peoples along the Pacific coast, there are many kinds of prefigurative cultures. Forty-five years ago, the life of the Arapesh people living in the mountains in New Guinea was a prefigurative culture.Whether picking something from the ground with the big toe, or plucking leaves for weaving straw mats, there is a certainty that every movement contains another, that every gesture is used to accommodate all the others—and it is in these The gesture embodies the elapsed past; the past is the past, and though it has given birth to countless changes, it is the past.There is no past for the Arapesh unless it dissolves in the lives of older and younger generations, in the lives of the Arapesh and their children and grandchildren.Life has changed, but after thorough assimilation, the differences in living habits that have been acquired successively have disappeared from the understanding and expectations of the people.

When the children of Arapesh enjoyed the feeding, embracing, bathing and dressing up of their parents when they were young, they started a series of lifelike scenes through the hands embracing them and the sounds around them—the melodious lullaby and elegy melody. study.When children are held or grow up and walk on the roads in and out of the village according to their parents' request, they are told that the road is a flat and unobstructed thing under their feet: when a new house is completed, everyone passing by Parents will tell their children, with calm and unsurprised faces, that this is something new that was not available a few days ago.In talking of these things they reacted as lightly as blind men to the moonlight streaming through the shadows of the whirling trees.When a stranger appeared in the village, they looked flustered, looked at the hurried passerby, and thought in their minds: what kind of delicacies can I offer to comfort this dangerous visitor, where will he go when he leaves here?There is a place called "Devil's Corner" on the edge of a steep cliff, where menstruating and childbirth women are taken, it is a place to cleanse the dirt and welcome the new life; People rush to tell each other like that, but they make it known to the public by quietly distributing countless "fuming" that people are familiar with.

Life, in the eyes of the Arapesh people, is as ancient as it is. The past is just an age in mythology, and it is indefinitely far away. Every mountain, rock and tree there is repeating the eternal past.Whether it is an octogenarian, a vigorous man, or a vigorous youth, they all receive and pass on the same set of precepts: how to be a man, how to be a boy or a girl, how to be the firstborn or the youngest, How to live in the eldest son's clan or in the lower-ranked clan; if you live in the half of the village where falcons are enshrined as totems, how should you be able to talk eloquently at grand events; When the other half of the village is a totem, how should it be called a person with concise and clear words.In the same way, the child will understand that many people die prematurely, and that life is so short-lived: he will understand that a baby may be abandoned because the sex is not what the parents expect, and that the baby may die in the middle of the world because of insufficient milk. In the arms of the mother who nursed him, he also knew that the wrath of a male relative, or that a male relative had some talisman stolen by an enemy wizard, could bring death to a newborn.Children will appreciate the magic and subtlety of the land on which they stand: beneath the great tree lies the ruins of an ancient village; Remembered its name.Rather than seeing this loss as a change, it's better to see it as an expected cycle.Here, all knowledge is lost, and everything of value has been created by others and can therefore only be obtained from others.The cheerful dance was spread to the village 20 years ago, and now it has been further spread to the villages in the hinterland.Those anthropologists outside the culture (and occasionally some peoples adjacent to the Arapesh) considered these mountain peoples very inferior, and they tried to describe the life of the Arapesh. What content of dance is preserved and what content is left behind.

The Arapesh's fear that knowledge would be lost forever, that humanity, dwindling in number from generation to generation, would eventually vanish from the face of the earth, gave them a faint layer of disappointment and fear.I found that among the Arapesh the sense of timelessness and the prevailing customs are as sharp, for they never live like the inhabitants of isolated islands.Their village is located among the rolling mountains, located in a vast area from the sea to the original land.They communicate and trade with other peoples who speak different languages ​​and produce other things, but have similar customs.Due to the continuous subtle changes and interactions, their sense of self-identity becomes more and more distinct between the known past and the expected future.This is especially true in areas where intercourse is prevalent.There, not only pots, bags, spears, bows, and arrows were exchanged, but also songs, dances, seeds and spells were exchanged.Women may have been taken captive from one tribe to another.There are always a few strange women of unknown origin in the village. Most of them are robbed by the men of this village to be wives when they live alone in the "menstruation hut" during menstruation. Therefore, they must learn the language of the tribe to which their current husbands belong.It's also part of life.In this way, the young people in Arapesh also understand that every woman may disappear one day.The boys knew that their wives might disappear; and the girls knew that they might leave at any time to learn another set of customs and languages ​​in a new tribe.This kind of life is also an integral part of this ancient world. The Polynesians, scattered over archipelagoes separated by hundreds of miles from each other, sometimes spent weeks at sea in small groups when they settled on other islands, though the long voyages often cost them some of their possessions, and even many of their lives, But they can still rebuild their traditional culture on the new island, and can give new content to the traditional culture—here, the determinant of preserving the traditional culture is the family, and the family is formed by the genealogy and the family line determined according to the legend. Sustained, consolidated.Unlike the Polynesians, the various peoples of New Guinea and Melanesia have lived side by side for thousands of years, but they have lived different lives in different ways, cherishing and emphasizing these small differences.In terms of language, there are only slight differences in vocabulary, rhythm and consonants between the dialects of different nationalities.It is in this continuous interchanging and subtle, non-increasingly diverse customs that these peoples maintain their unchanging sense of self-identity. We found that in those nations that have undergone some kind of drastic historical changes, prefigurative cultures still remain or even re-formed.The Balinese people of Indonesia have suffered countless profound foreign influences over hundreds of years.These influences came from China, India, and elsewhere, and from later Buddhism brought by the Javanese who occupied Bali to escape Islamic invasion.In Bali in the 1930s, primitive simplicity and modern modernity intersected in Balinese sculptures and dances, in the Chinese currency that people used to exchange, and in the play of Western acrobats from Malaya Among them, it is even reflected in the bicycle of the ice cream seller.Outsiders and a small number of educated Balinese people can perceive the influence of complex cultures from the East and the West, can point out which content of the sacrifice was influenced by the religion of which era, and point out the difference between the two types of Brahmans: one type follows the Indian Shivistic etiquette, the other is the descendants of Buddhists.Later, even the dull guardians of the low-level temples in the Balinese villages could make this distinction; When upper-class tourists visit the temple, he will immediately change his words and call his village god by the name of a high-ranking Hindu god.Every village has its own dance; a village ruled by a higher caste is very different from a village ruled by another caste. "Every Balinese village is different" and "All Bali is the same" are two deep-rooted beliefs that still govern Bali today and continue to influence the people there.Although they had a way of recording the passing years and erecting occasional monuments, the calendar they used was one of day and week cycles, and the days that coincided with each other between weeks were designated as festivals.When a new palm-leaf book comes out, it is marked with the week and day of publication, but not the year, because new books are reprints of old books that were published long ago.Faced with changes, Melanesians see them as distinguishing themselves from their neighbors, Polynesians resist and moderate them, but they see them as genuine in a culture that values ​​change and progress. Change—and in Bali, this change is seen as a pattern of change in a world of repetition and immutability, which brings uncertainty to the lives of newborns born at home. The Balinese have a long and colorful history of cultural diffusion, immigration, and trade, but Balinese culture, like the original Alabachian culture, remained prefigurative until the Second World War.Wedding and funeral ceremonies all repeat the same theme.The drama performed during the worship of the gods described the struggle between the dragon and the witch. The former represented life and religious rituals; the latter represented death and fear.The witch who plays the role of a witch wears the swaddling clothes that mothers use to wrap their babies; while the one who plays the role of a dragon stretches out his teeth and claws, sticks out his red tongue, and uses his harmless bloody mouth to protect his followers, which actually represents the Balinese people. Funny father character.There is no gap between the lived experience of the old and the young.When the children watched the witch cast the magic cloth on the assailant, trying to haunt the dragon, the fear and the joy that followed made them excited in the arms of their mothers. The child places her expectations on change or getting ahead, and she seems to revisit her childhood experience in the arms of her mother with the child. Not only among the Balinese, but even among those peoples who are descendants of great civilizations, despite their full understanding of the possibilities of world change.Some immigrants from Europe to the United States have a fanatical belief: to settle in the New World, where they can establish a new community according to their own wishes, and rebuild the timeless and eternal self-identity that has been passed down from generation to generation.This is true for immigrant communities like Herters, Amy Shaw, Dunkelz, Sikes, Duke Bowers, etc.Even today, people in these communities raise their children in the way their parents and grandparents taught them.There is no hope of breaking this upbringing; for such a breaking would mean a change of heart and appearance, of identity and continuity, and this change would be like rebirth -- rebirth into a strange in the culture. The pressure generated after the prefigurative culture and non-prefigurative culture or prefigurative culture comes into contact with another prefigurative culture or foreign culture will often make the prefigurative culture accultrate part of the self-identity of other cultures, and individuals may therefore become Break away from the original culture and enter other cultures.They have the self-identity of the original culture, and in the new culture, they expect to gain the same self-identity as in the original culture.They give many things a double meaning of old and new culture.For example, speaking a new language with an old syntax, choosing a house style according to new customs but still decorating the interior walls with the customs of the original culture.This is one of the most common ways for immigrant adults from prefigurative cultures to adapt to a new cultural environment.But their internal integration mechanism has not changed, this integration mechanism is so strong that it can complete a series of lifestyle changes under the premise of maintaining self-identity.For most immigrant adults, the day of rich accumulation of such interactive transformation will be the time when they face new choices. What is still not known is whether this transformation is likely to occur among people who come from cultures that do not have the idea of ​​change.Those Japanese who were born in the United States but were sent back to Japan for long-term education, if they return to the United States (in the difficult period of World War II, these Japanese were called "guimi"), once they encountered a moment of re-decision , there will be no sharp conflict over whom to be loyal to.While they understand that one must be loyal to one's country, they also know that one's membership in a society can be lost and loyalty to that society can be altered.The fact that they were loyal and acknowledging Japan in the past meant that they were equally likely to be loyal American citizens.The prefigurative culture they have received has enabled them to fully adapt to another society. It is by virtue of these processes that we can understand the lives of the Indian women who lived in California in primitive times.In order to avoid the incest that prevailed at that time, they could not marry men of their own tribe who spoke the same language, and could only live as strangers in a group that spoke another language for life.Thus, after countless centuries, two languages ​​were found in the same group: the language of women and the language of men.The contrast between the different languages ​​of the parents and the corresponding different expectations placed on the individual by the different cultures will become part of the culture in which the individual grows up, and this expectation is sung by the song of the grandmother. Expressed in conversations with women alone.Newly married brides from other tribes have learned from their mothers and grandmothers the woman's language, which is different from the man's, and the groom who marries her has to learn to understand the woman's language, but can only speak the man's.This requirement became an integral part of maintaining the whole system among tribes that intermarried but spoke very different languages. Just as a prefigurative culture can conceive in its own womb the expectations and demands of living in and becoming a member of another culture, it can also breed the learning styles that make people unable to adapt to other cultural environments.Essie, an isolated Californian Indian, was the sole survivor of a war in which the whites wiped out his tribe. When he was found in 1911, he was dying.Before that, he didn't know how to survive in the white world.Essie, a Yana Indian, told enthusiastic UC anthropology students how the Yana made arrowheads.The early education he received, the brand of the Yana people on his forehead, and the arduous experience of dealing with those bloodthirsty white people alone for more than 10 years, all made him later live in white culture. Cannot change own group attributes. Richard Gould (Richard Gould) recently studied those Australian inhabitants who lived in the desert. They knew every inch of the desert there and gave it a deep meaning. When the indigenous people who are deeply influenced by foreign cultures live in new gathering places, they will approach other neighboring tribes in the way they are familiar with and have been used by their ancestors for countless generations. Other indigenous people who are deeply influenced by foreign cultures intermarry.And those aborigines who have been deeply influenced by foreign cultures have partially lost their self-identity, they no longer hunt, and they no longer hold sacrificial ceremonies, but like their ancestors, they are always on guard against the interaction of foreign cultures Influence, therefore, they always seem to resist the acculturation of foreign cultures in the end.They are convinced that past bad luck is inextricably linked to white culture.Australian aborigines don't mind their wives and daughters sleeping with men from other tribes, but they stipulate taboos that outsiders should abide by. These taboos divide marriage into different grades, that is, only men and women of the same grade can freely live together.But white people have no grades in marriage. What they have is a strong sense of superiority of the entire race.Therefore, in their eyes, aboriginal women's free gift in terms of sex is one of the inferior signs that aboriginal people can't hide.Once in contact with white people, the aborigines will lose the reliable way to blend their own cultural system with other cultures, and the result will inevitably hinder further cultural assimilation. The way younger people learn languages ​​from their elders defines what it means to be an adult, and these younger generations are also able to learn new languages.They might learn each new language as a way of comparing cultural systems that might bring about change.The Jews and the Americans did this, and now the peoples of New Guinea who are surrounded by other language-speaking groups may learn their own language as the only correct system, leaving all others The language system is seen only as an imperfect replica derived from it, as is the case when Americans are taught English by teachers who no longer speak their native language. Over the course of a few years, the children are able to grow up through the culture-specific upbringing; in general, most, if not all, children born into that culture are honed in this upbringing.People classify children according to their individual differences, and then give them different training.The Balinese divide children into two types, those who are evil in nature and those who are simple and kind in nature.Children are assigned to one type early in life; whether this division is appropriate or not, it continues into old age.The Samoans—and the French—are divided by the age of the child, and by the child's ability to understand social events.Never in human history has a single cultural system had enough different parenting styles to accommodate all children.Sometimes children die prematurely because they strayed too far from society's expectations; sometimes they may be stunted, or cynical, or forced to identify as bisexual; look at everything around you.If we regard these individual cases as failures of the human educational system, it can be said that such neuroses are not uncommon in any society. In all systems of children's education there should be certain precautions to be able to resolve the conflict between the child's growing sexual maturity and his still small stature, between his subject status and his immaturity.Sometimes, some cultural forms can also partially adapt to the precocity of children. For example, in fishing and hunting societies, children there can master the survival skills of their parents when they are five or six years old, and marry as soon as they reach puberty.Sometimes, young boys are called to have extraordinary courage.Take the Munduguma people of New Guinea, for example, where young boys are often taken hostage to temporarily allyed tribes.People ask these children to learn as much as possible during the hostage period, so that they can lead the tribe's head hunting team to attack the village one day later, but in more complex societies, the adult role there is Children of six or seven, or even sixteen or seven, are out of reach, but people choose other means of adapting children to the delay of puberty.Parents must also guard against re-explosions of their long-repressed early childhood libidos.Otherwise, laissez-faire may become the reason for children's indulgence and addiction in the future.For example, once the Balinese people let their children hang out in groups, the children will become disheveled, unwashed, and rebellious people, and the same will happen when Basong's children are separated from their strict father and sent to their uncle's house : This is especially true for Zuni children. In order to avoid conflicts with their children, their parents often indulge them on the one hand, and on the other hand invite those scary dancers to come to the house to teach those disobedient children. So it seems that in every prefigurative culture the challenge of the Oedipus complex to masculine authority is repeated in every generation if the society is to survive, and there seems to be something biological in the early social formations of man. utility, but it is clearly inappropriate in all known cultures to assign early reproductive functions and social responsibilities to children.Children's maturity should not be taken advantage of prematurely, therefore, there are rules against incest everywhere.At the same time, it is also necessary to prevent adults from re-indulging in past memories, fears, hostility and disappointment because of children, otherwise it may cause children to form a mentality of resistance and destruction. One might also wish for some wonderful miracle to happen in every society--after all, children who are well-informed have the advantage, luck, and choice of behavior over their swaying companions.Sometimes this kind of fantasy may be a commonplace phenomenon, as in American Indian society, where young people and adults alike aspire to be hallucinatory beings, and believe that anyone who can create a convincing hallucination will become a leader.Talent is the comprehensive product of temperament, talent and environment. When individuals and their thoughts mature with the passage of time, the emergence of genius means that individuals will be able to create new cultural forms by virtue of illusions or dreams. Individuals The perfect blend of qualifications and experience is itself a cultural function.In a culture that lacks both creativity and the idea of ​​change, some very small changes require an individual with superhuman endowments to complete.For example, make some reforms to the existing art forms, make some reforms to the use of new materials, and even find ways to expand the scale of the war.In such a culture, every insignificant change requires Galilean and Newtonian geniuses who can make outstanding contributions in a culture with a great scientific tradition. We still haven't been able to know in detail how the vitality of change will emerge in that kind of society with strong integration and repetition.We also cannot know how children can maintain their spontaneity in a society that stifles and punishes spontaneity.When all the ready-made answers have been instilled in children, do they still have a skeptical attitude towards things?And in the face of the habitual intrusion of hunger and disappointment, how should they continue to maintain the hope that is as bright as the morning sun?For nearly half a century, we've heard people talking about who was traumatized, and whose babies or children were abandoned by parents who couldn't or wouldn't support them, yet we still know very little about those extraordinary saints. This is one of the reasons why young people continue to have doubts. In the society of prefigurative culture, the relationship between generations does not need too much warmth.In some societies, each generation is expected to rebel -- to defy the expectations of older people and to wrest power from their elders.儿童时代可能会使人经受许多痛苦的体验，小孩子可能会生活在叔父和姑妈的恐吓之下，他们总是通过操弄许多神秘骇人的仪式来树立自己的威望。但是当这些小孩子们长大之后，他们也同样希望自己的兄弟姐妹能够为下一代着想，将其子女托给他们，由他们施以同样的仪式化行为，以苦其心智、劳其筋骨。事实也是如此，有些十分坚固的前喻文化社会，如澳大利亚的土人和居住在新几内亚克兰河畔的巴拿罗人的文化，即体现了这种特性。在这些社会中，每个人都要参加一种痛苦的仪式和成年加入仪式，或参加形态各异的共妻或性的开禁仪式，无论从哪一方面来看，这些仪式都会带来痛苦，激起参加者的羞辱和恐惧。 恰如在硬木板床上睡了多年的囚犯总是梦想着能有一张舒适的床，但当他出狱以后却发现，他只能在硬木板床上安然入睡；又如原先吃惯粗茶淡饭的人，来到丰盛的宴席前，却仍然想吃以往并不使他感到十分可口的粗茶淡饭；人类似乎也总是顽强地固守着自己的文化自认，尽管在这种相习相衍的自认过程中，人们所遭受的痛苦要比快乐和兴奋多得多。那些在舒适的家庭中幸福地成长起来的儿童，要比那些早年生活于痛苦和恐惧之中的儿童，能够更加安全地适应新的环境。在全面否定的惩罚和威胁之中培养出的文化自认感，其坚固程度往往令人惊异。民族的自认感往往是由经历的痛苦和承受痛苦的能力界定的，是由引以为骄傲的祖先们的悲壮业绩界定的，因此它也就能够在遭受剥夺和毁灭的威胁下，仍然保留在流落四方的人民之中。那些遭受了无数劫难但仍坚韧不拔的民族群体，如犹太人和亚美尼亚人部落，历经数百年的迫害和流亡之后，仍然保持着自己永不磨灭的民族自认感。 但是，典型的前喻文化却是孤陋寡闻的原始文化，这种文化存在于其成员的记忆之中，并在这里记载着以往的历史。史前社会尚没有文学，因此也不会有对以往的历史加以粉饰、歪曲的史书静卧在人们的书架上。但是，那些经由人类的双手雕凿劈削的无言的石头，却向人们述说着这个世界所经历的一切。家系学家们能够自由地驾驭着卷帙浩瀚的史料对历史加以浓缩，以使神话和信史能够相互吻合。“凯撒那家伙，他竟让这个村里的每一个人都去村外筑路！”“盘古开天之初是混池一片的空白！”为了销毁过去的记忆，使过去仅仅以适应当时的方式流传下来，原始人对历史曾做过无数高度功能性的修改，即使那些在历史上为人所熟知的原始民族也同样如此，因为他们挚信，他们现在所居住的地方就是当年自己民族的发源地、 他们对于各种社会的了解，为人类学家所采用以建立文化的概念。人类学家根据这类文化的鲜明的稳定性和不变的连续性特征建立了“文化”模式，他们不仅在研究中运用这种模式，而且提供给另外那些希望凭借人类学概念解释人类行为的人。但是，在人类学家描述那些弱小、原始、同质、变化缓慢的社会的方法之间，在他们描述的存在于新几内亚和加利福尼亚等地的各原始部落的相互差别之间，总是存在着十分明显的矛盾。显而易见，随着时光的消逝，在大致相同的技术水平上也会发生许多伟大的变化。各民族散居四方，语言各异。我们可以发现，那些相距数百里的民族说着同样的语言，也同样能够发现，那些说着相同的语言或生活于同一种文化中的不同的群体，相互间却存在着明显的体质差异。 在没有文字、没有碑文记载的史前时代，对新事物的理解和洞悉一经出现，便会被旧有的形态所湮没。我认为，这点至今尚未引起人们的足够重视。文化是由老一辈传给年轻人的，而那些对历史加以编纂的老一辈却对古往今来的变迁作了神话般的描述，甚或根本否认变迁。例如，一个向其它部落学会了借助帐篷宿营，刚刚在美洲广袤的平原上支起帐篷生息繁衍了三四代的部落，却可能绘声绘色地向后代描述。他们的祖先是如何通过模仿树叶卷曲的形状发明了帐篷。在萨摩亚，老人们聚精会神地听着来自新西兰的玻利尼西亚客人蒂·兰杰·希洛描述玻利尼西亚人的祖先远航的故事，每一代玻利尼西亚人的记忆中都保存着先人早期航行的神圣记载。故事结束以后，听众们都一致坚定地回答：“故事确实非常有趣，但我们萨摩亚民族的摇篮却是我们脚下的土地，是菲蒂尤塔（Fitiuta ）。”这位来自新西兰的客人是玻利尼西亚人和欧洲人的混血后代，他受过高等教育，但最后却不得不在巨大的刺激中求安慰，通过询问萨摩亚人现在是不是基督徒，信不信伊甸园中的上帝以求安慰！ 对已知事物的可靠记忆反倒使以往的变化模糊不倩，也使变革为悠远的年代所同化。那些能够详细描述发生在以往相对稳定时期的事情的人，谈起发生在近来的不甚稳定时期内的事却可能漏洞百出。那些必须适应陌生的历史背景的事件总被笼罩在非现实的氛围之中，兹后，如果它们还被完全记着的话，那么还得去适应为人所熟知的历史背景，而种种变化的细节，譬如变化的过程，则为人们所遗忘。只有压抑种种有碍于建立连续感和自认感的记忆，人们才能够保持文化的连续性。 即使在那种充分体现出变化观念的文化中，不论事情发生的年代的远近，运用细节去消除对林林总总的事物的记忆，足以长久地保持文化的连续性感觉。尽管这种方法连同与此有关的对自认和连续性的态度都可能一并失去，但也有可能重新获得。在文化的每一复杂层次上，都可能产生，也可以重建前喻文化的基本特征，这种基本特征就是稳定的、毫无疑义的自认感和有关生活的每一个已知方面的普遍公正感。 一个有着数千年古老文化的国家，每一座古老的城市，甚而每一座古老的建筑都昭示着历史的变化，但这里的移民迁居到一个新的国家（如北美或澳大利亚）以后，同样可能丧失变化的观念。这里没有古老的记载、旧时的界标，也没有市场、树木和山峦，由此繁芜而生的历史消失了，过去也被急剧浓缩。但是，人们在新的国家中的生活方式仍旧和过去有着千丝万缕的联系，在人们的饮食起居之中保留着过去的概貌。人们继续说着先前的语言；从事着古老的职业——在土地上种植葡萄，播种麦子，建造老式房屋；甚至在朗若明镜的夜晚，迢迢星汉间的北斗七星，也是那般熟悉、亲切；这一切都赋予外来的移民们以一种从未断裂的连续感。只要人们仍旧群居一处，袓父母辈仍旧被当成权威的象征，在指导耕耘、收获谷物、处理危难时他们的经验仍旧被视为不可背逆的圣典，这种现象就会一如既往。在明尼苏达北部居住的斯堪得那维亚人，他们从北欧迁徙而来，但他们的社区中至今仍盛行着早先的生活方式，正是在这种生活方式之中保留了古老的斯堪得那维亚文化。 孩提时代，人们能够十分彻底而又毫无困难地为其置身的文化所溶化，以至成年之后和其他文化成员的接触也总是那样的浅淡、谨慎而且充满敌意，这一切都决定了个人深蕴的自认感是无法变更的。个人能够在原先陌生的环境中生活多年，在那里劳作生息，甚至结婚育子，他们既不会对臼认发生疑惑，也不会欲图寻求建立新的自认。如果是整个群体的话，他们有可能象希腊人或中国人那样建立一个“不完全的移民”习惯。所有男性长大以后都辞别家中的妻子儿女渡海而去，到他国异乡的矿山、葡萄园、工厂中劳作。数代之后，人们逐渐适应了父亲暂缺的活方式，文化虽说有了改变，但仍然能够沿着原有的轨迹一代代地传递下去。 但是，如果整个群体迁居于一个新的环境，祖孙三代都背井离乡，统一迁往一处的话，变化的可能性将会更大；在新的地方。人们将潺潺的流水、咆哮的海浪……，将一切自然景物都视为和家乡一般，古老的生活方式仍会保留下大部分，以使袓辈的记忆和孙辈的经验溶为一体。但事实上新的地方和家乡有着很大的不同，这里9 月初便寒气袭人，而在家乡要到10月人们才晒晒太阳；这里没有做小馅饼的葵花子，初夏采集的浆果是黑色的，不象家乡是红色的；而晚秋搜集的坚硬的干果虽说还叫着早先的名字，但形状却大不相同。这一切都给祖辈们的神聊加入新的内容：“在我们的老家哟，可不是这样的。” 对这些区别的敏悟为年轻的一代开辟了新的选择途径。他能够聆听和汲取新旧两地的不同观念，从家乡移居他处，既造成了迁徙的事实，也使年轻人的意识有所改变。如此，他可能珍惜这种反差，满怀深情地对待昔日遗留下来的令人怀旧的文物，但也可能把昔日的文物当成新生活的累赘而彻底抛弃。新的政府会要求移民们接受新的观念，放弃原有的生活习惯，给婴儿注射预防针，纳税，规定年轻人服兵役，送孩子们去学校里学习国语。即使没有这些要求，也会有其它压力反对一切都听从老年人的。如果老年人总是谈他们曾经住过的那带有传奇色彩的房屋——就象也门人迁居以色列时住过的那种房子；或者现在栖身于都市的下等公寓，却津津乐道地回忆爱尔兰式的古老而舒适的农家小屋；……总之，如果老一辈的言谈话语过多地流露出思乡怀旧的情感，这些唠叨就会引起年轻人的日益不满。因为过去的回忆无论多么美好，但毕竟无以果腹，无以抵御从旧屋的缝隙中吹进的阵阵寒风。 如此，你就能够理解，为什么许多仍旧共同生活在移民社区中的人们能够放弃令人眷恋不舍的过去，不让对昔日生活的怀念打扰今天贫乏而单调的生活。那些曾经生活于以往的田园情趣之中，今天已经一贫如洗（如农民和无产者）的人们，也不再沉溺于对昔日的文化和历史的回忆，而是冷静地面对着目今艰难的生活。今天居住在美国东南部山区中的操英语的英伦三岛的移民后裔，过着的就是这样一种生活。他们的文化确实来自英伦三岛，但是，直至一次大战期间被人发现时，他们从没有离开过自己所迁居的山谷。他们对自己所生活的这个国家——美国一无所知，甚至对离他们最近的大城市的名字也不知道。然而，追溯其历史渊源，他们同样是在那场意义深远的国王和贵族的争斗中，为了寻求宗教和政治的自由而开拓新大陆的先驱。 早先古老的文化适应于不同的栖息地，不同的生活方式和不同数量的人口。但是，今天在整个世界范围内，这种文化却是日薄西山，正日益衰落，在南美居住的印第安人十分善于编织，但他们只会编织装饰身体的佩带，而不会编织衣服。有些民族，其祖先来自有着严谨组织体系的帝国，但现在他们的亲族关系却成了唯一的社会组织形式。还有一些民族，如玛雅人和克列特岛人，虽然并未迁居他处，但他们原有的生活方式却已分崩离析，他们已经丧失了祖先文化的大部分内在特质。 所有这些变化都在改变着文化的本质。我认为，我们能够对变化的本质作出有益的区分，我们也能够指出在历史的那一点上发生了巨大的裂变——从此人们不再继续谈论前喻文化，而把现存的一切看成是不同于前喻文化的另一类型的文化。前喻文化及那种在巨大的变化之中仍在语言和忠诚观念方面保持着前喻方式的文化，其基本的和确定的特征是，由祖孙三代以上的人组成的群体都把他们的文化看成是理所当然的，这样孩子们就能够在成长的过程中毫无疑问地接受他们的祖辈和父辈视之为毫无疑问的一切。在这种状况下，人的全部行为中，习得的文化模式行为和具有内在一致性的行为所占的比重很大，而有意识造就的行为所占的比重则很小。比如，人们指着圣诞节吃的馅饼说三道四，但马铃薯中放多少盐却无人计较。人们谈论着仓库门上画的防止牛奶变酸的符咒，但却无人过问饲料堆和牛奶棚的设置。如何关怀人和某些动物，男女之间的细微差异，饮食起居的习惯，存钱和用钱的方法，以及喜悦和痛苦的反应，如此等等，都是一系列的由上代至下代的传递行为。对这些行为稍加分析，即可发现一致性和普遍性，但这些行为都深深地潜藏于意识的表层之下。正是这种未加标定的、非言语的、无意识的特征，给前喻文化以及所有含有前喻特征的文化带来了极大的稳定性。 如果在成年时期学习一种新的文化，那么在这种情况下，前喻型学习也可能会占有很大的比重。从来没有谁正正经经地教导那些外国来的移民该如何行走。正如一位第一次购买侨居国服装，但却不知道该如何穿戴的妇女一样，她开始穿上街上其他女人穿的那种古怪的服装时极不舒服——这种衣服是套头式的，而不象原先是开襟式的，但随后她也会慢慢适应这种服装式样，并因此而具备侨居国妇女的绰约风姿。其他妇女对她的反应也是无意识的，她们把新来者当成自己人，而不当成陌生人，带她进入寝室，并进而十分信任她。如果是一位男子穿上侨居国的新式服装，他会懂得站立的时候什么场合下能够、什么场合下不能够把手插在口袋里，以免引起他人的评头品足，甚至招致他人的不满。这一过程是渐进的，在许多方面就象生活于本土文化中的儿童的学习过程一样，他们学些什么不会受到特殊的训练和指导，因此也不需要有意识的努力。而居住在这位陌生的外来者附近的居民，就象终生生活在单一文化中的老人一样，也很少会对自己的习惯行为发生疑问。 这两个条件，即缺乏疑问和缺乏自我意识，似乎是前喻文化得以保存的关键因素。前喻文化能够在自我意识的混乱和反叛之后一次次地得以重建，说明了前喻文化是这样一种形式的文化，即它所保留下来的内容，至少绝大部分对于当代人和他们数千年前的祖先一样，具有同等的效力。所有存在于古老的手稿和历史之中，存在于档案和法典之中的差异和矛盾，都能够为同样经得起分析的系统所重新吸收，因为没有人对这些差异和矛盾提出疑问，它们潜藏于人类意识的表层之下。 这些未经分析的文化行为愈是接近观察者的行为，人们对它的分析便愈加困难，甚至对于那些训练有素的观察者也莫不如此。二次大战期间，除了那些运用不同的观察方法对日本、中国、缅甸和泰国进行文化分析的观察者（人们称其为“中国通”）之外，其它地区的观察遇到的阻力相对较小。但是，一旦将文化分析应用于欧洲文化时，便会引起那些乐意对亚洲人和非洲人进行分析的美国知识分子的强烈反对，因为欧洲文化包含了许多和他们自己的文化相似的未加分析的因素。在这种情况下，任何反对进行自我分析，把自己看成是未受文化之局限、行动自由的个体的欧美国家的成员，都反对进行与其相关的分析，比如，反对研究者对德国、苏联或英国文化进行分析。 与此相应，如果人们对以前喻方式建立的特殊文化行为模式进行的分析既未超越他的社会文化背景，又恰好符合他所具有的知识水平的话，那么这种分析也往往会使人产生豁然开朗的顿悟之感。人们总是认为，其他人在体质上、社会进化的层次上和他们有所不同，因而在遗传方式上也必然不同于他们。这种未加分析的盲目观念在人们的头脑中根深蒂固，但人们却可能竭力地宣称，他们所信奉的是种族和阶级以社会的而非遗传的因素所决定的科学论断。人际之间的差异无论何时都将存在，而人们仍将死守着遗传学的解释。那些认为其他人和自己完全不同的人，绝大多数都认为这种差异是先天遗传而来的。因此，当个人最终能够接受对具有相同体质的法国人或德国人的不同行为所进行的文化解释时，在他们的眼里，文化的差异将是最为真实的差异。 这种深蕴的、未加分析而又模糊不清的执拗，是从那些从不发问的长辈和移居新的文化中的成员们那里学来的。如果对文化的理解能够既成为人类科学的知识结构的一部分，又成为有关人类科学将更加繁荣的社会舆论的一部分的话，那么这种执拗将有助于人们进行进一步的分析。一且人们了解到他们所说的语言和自己邻居所说的不同，了解到语言是从小学会的，但也能够为说他种语言的人学会，他们就可能去学习第二或第三种语言，有意识地创造语法，并对自己的语言予以改造。在这一方面，语言只是文化的一部分，并且长期以来被认为是和人类的遗传无关的。从对感情深处的洞悉，到对行为举止方面的细微差异的分析，总之，对一文化的全面理解，和对一种语言的理解并无过多的区别。但是，全面的理解需要各种不同的工具，需要运用以照相机、录音机和其它分析器材武装起来的听觉和视觉器官。 今天，展现在我们面前的，有不同形式的前喻文化，以及文明程度迥然不同的各个民族，这些民族代表着从狩猎和采集时代起到目今的工业时代为止的人类历史的一系列不同时期。我们可以借用一些已有的概念和工具去研究这些民族。尽管原始民族、愚昧的农民以及那些生活在穷乡僻壤和都市贫民窟中的被剥削者们，无法直接地告诉我们他们的全部见闻，我们还是能够记录他们的行为，作为日后分析的资料。我们也可以给他们一架照相机，让他们去拍摄自己的生活景况，以帮助我们了解在我们所受的道德教育之下所无法直接观察的事情。人类已知的过去呈现在我们的面前，向我们默默地昭示，经过1000多年的前喻文化和并喻文化（在并喻文化期间，人们从父辈那里学习以往的经验，从同辈那里学习新的经验）的洗礼，我们已经进入了人类文化演进的全新时代。