生命的进化（1979）

A razor-sharp knife made in about ten minutes.
在这些人手中还有一件致命的武器
And a deadly weapon in the hands of these people.
他们是勇敢而有技术的猎人
They were brave and skilful hunters,
而且我们知道从发黑的石头里他们控制了火
and we know from blackened stones that they had control of fire,
一个宝贵的财产， 不仅可以保暖还可以用来煮肉
which must have been a precious possession, not just to keep warm but to cook their meat.
这是一个人的头骨
This is the skull of a man
就在这附近挖出
that was excavated from just near here.
你可以看到他用来咬肉的牙齿比较小
You can see his teeth for chewing that meat are now relatively small,
所以煮食是有价值的方法
so cooking was a very valuable technique.
不只牙齿改变了，还有头盖骨
But it's not just the teeth that have changed. So has the cranium.
控制语言的脑部被完全开♥发♥
The parts of the brain that control speech are fully developed,
所以这个人可能有流利和复杂的语言表达能力
so this man had probably a fluent and complex language.
事实上，没有明显地不同
In fact, there are virtually no significant differences
这个人的骨骼和头骨与我的
between this man's skeleton and skull and mine.
所以人类学家，不客气地叫他智人
So anthropologists have called him, somewhat immodestly, Homo sapiens.
聪明的人
Wise man.
这种人有着的很大的差异
The huge difference that separates this man
这种人离开洞穴下河捕鱼
leaving such a cave as this and going down to fish in the river
和东京、伦敦或纽约的衣冠楚楚的 行政人员走进小汽车
and a smartly-dressed executive in Tokyo or London or New York stepping into his car
并驾车到办公室商议最新的电脑打印
and driving off to his office to consult the latest computer printout
的差异 不是由脑子或解剖学上的任何变化差异决定
is not due to any change in the brain or the anatomy.
而由一个完全新的进化的出现决定
It's due to the emergence of a completely new evolutionary factor.
第一个明显的标志是 有不可思议的良好的储存的地方
And the first dazzling signs of it are miraculously preserved right here.
在很多洞穴的后面，有地道通至地下深处
From the back of many of these caves, tunnels lead down into the depths of the earth.
到达黑暗处
And into this blackness,
靠用灯芯草做灯心，用动物脂肪做燃料的油灯 来认路
finding their way by lamps with a rush for a wick and animal fat for fuel, went early man.
他们开始了 这些漫长和对他们必然非常重要的旅程
They made these long and, surely for them, most important journeys
为了做这些，绘画
in order to do this, to paint.
对我来说， 这个是他们的绘画中最感动人的绘画之一
This for me is one of the most moving of their paintings.
他展现了一匹有着固定风格的马 长着长鬃毛的小黑头
It represents a stylised horse, here its small black head with a long black mane.
而它身上的看起来像斑纹的斑点， 可能有一些别的意思
And these spots on it, which appear to be dapples, probably have some other meaning
因为它们超出马的轮廓了
because they extend beyond the outline of the horse.
这里，最隐密最生动的可能是
And here, perhaps most intimate and vivid of all,
一个人的手绘
a hand-print of one of those people.
可能用一口黑色颜料作成
Made probably by taking a mouthful of black paint
像蜡纸一样的手在上面拍打
and blowing it over the hand like a stencil.
这些早期的人是顶级的艺术家
These early people were superlative artists
敏锐和准确地画出了它们的世界的动物
and drew the animals of their world with great sensitivity and such accuracy
我们可以识别它们脑海中的动物
that often we can identify the species they had in mind.
这些是野牛，在法国没有再被发现， 但在远东仍然有生存
These are bison, no longer to be found in France but still surviving farther east.
欧洲野牛，现在完全灭绝了
Aurochs, a kind of giant cattle now totally extinct.
这个画廊包含了动物的队伍
This gallery contains a procession of animals,
在它们当中，长着逢乱长毛的猛犸象
among them mammoths, shaggy with long hair.
这些绘画中最老的被认为有3万年的历史
The oldest of these paintings is thought to be about 30,000 years old.
最晚的可能1万年
The youngest maybe 10,000.
那是很大的时间跨度
That's an immense span of time.
是整个西方文明史的五倍
Five times the length of the entire history of western civilisation.
所以从整段时间来推测所有的绘画
So it's unreasonable to suppose they all, throughout this time,
有着同样的意图是不合理的
served exactly the same purpose.
然而，一些会与打猎巫术有联♥系♥
Some, however, may well have been connected with a hunting magic.
通过画出他们找到的动物的图像， 猎人试图控制它们
By painting images of animals they sought, the hunters tried to control them.
当然，多数的图像 象征被抓获并作为食物的动物
Certainly, most of the images represent animals that were hunted for food.
人们很容易理解这些作为箭头或长矛的符号♥
It's tempting to interpret these signs as arrows or spears.
它们可能在一个模仿狩猎的宗教仪式上被画
Perhaps they were drawn during a ritual when the men mimed the hunt they prayed for.
而在这些敏锐的准确的动物画像中
And among these sensitive and accurate drawings of animals,
有很多神秘的图案
there are much more mysterious designs.
这被认为是人像的图案甚至可能是一种祭品
This has been interpreted as a human figure, perhaps even a sacrifice
在侧面有矛
with spears in its flanks.
并且，这些对即将来临的事情具有重大意义
As well as these, and this is significant for what is to come,
有几何图形，像这些的成对圆点
there are geometrical symbols like these paired dots.
其他的有一次次地出现的奇数图象
There are other odd shapes that occur again and again.
我们不知道，这些抽象的图形象征着什么
What these abstract symbols signify we have no idea,
但它们的出现对即将来临的事情具有重要意义
but the fact they occur at all is significant for what is to come,
虽然我们不知道它们的确切意思
even though we don't know exactly what they mean.
然而，在世界的一个地方
In one place in the world, however,
我们找到了一个游牧民族 在洞穴的岩石上刻画的原因
we can discover why a nomadic hunting people paint on rock in caves
因为在这，澳大利亚北部的土著人仍然这样做
because here, in northern Australia, the aborigines still do so.
他们也描绘动物，并捕猎它们回来作为食物
They too portray the animals they hunt for food.
一些是在赞扬动物多产的宗教仪式上被画的
Some are drawn as part of rituals to maintain the animals' fertility.
一些是在讲述他们的故事的庆祝会上被画的
Others are made during ceremonies where people recount stories of their creation.
因为洞穴对他们来说是一个神圣的地方
For this cave is a sacred place for them.
在它后面，他们画了伟大的造物者之一的形象
On the back of it, they've painted the image of one of their great creator spirits.
它位于它的侧面， 头偏向左边，脚伸展着偏向右边
It lies on its side, its head to the left, its legs stretching out to the right.
土著也画抽象的符号♥
And aborigines also draw abstract symbols.
这些线和点不是无目的的乱画之物
These lines and dots are not aimless doodles.
它们表示特别的东西
They represent particular things.
智人，聪明的人， 已经在交流能力上迈进了一大步
Homo sapiens, wise man, has made a huge step forward in his ability to communicate.
他发现怎样不用相似物去表现物体
He's discovered how to represent objects not by their likeness
而靠符号♥
but by symbols.
在这种情况下，部落中的受过教育的人的眼睛
In this great frieze, the educated eye of a man of the tribe
可以读一个神圣的传说
can read a sacred legend
讲述造物者在创世之初怎样走过大地
telling how the great creator spirit moved across the land in the beginning of time
阐述人们怎样造矛和打猎
and showed men how to make spears and go hunting.
辨别可食用和有毒的食物的能力
The ability to distinguish the edible from the poisonous,
追踪和杀死动物， 在最贫瘠的土地以外的地方寻找食物的能力
to track and kill animals, to discover food in all but the most sterile of lands,
使“聪明的人”能够在全世界开枝散叶
enabled "wise man" to spread throughout the world.
现在很多人仍然用这种远古的技能来生活
Many groups of people today still live entirely by these ancient skills.
让外界的人们困惑的是， 靠自己的方式了解他们的世界的土著人
The aborigines, by understanding their land with an intimacy that baffles outsiders,
能够在沙漠地区生存 而陌生人将在数日内死于饥饿
can survive in desert country where strangers would die of starvation in days.
在喀拉哈里沙漠， 布须曼人也以相似的方式中生活
In the Kalahari desert, the bushmen too live in a similar way,
用着相似的技术
with the help of similar skills.
它们是最专业的猎人
They are the most expert of hunters.
它们知道怎样在箭头上涂抹毒药
They know how to prepare poison to tip their arrows
和用它们来打倒大的生物 例如长颈鹿
and with them bring down big game, like a giraffe,
虽然这样的狩猎花费很多天 并且需要很多勇气和耐力
though the hunt may take many days and demand the greatest bravery and endurance.
布须曼女人能认出叶子的特征
Bushman women can recognise the characters of a leaf
这会告诉她们纺锤形的块茎信息
that tells the knowledegable that this spindly stem
地下的块茎在最干旱的日子能存水
leads to a tuber in the ground that is loaded with water in the most severe of droughts.
当“聪明的人”在遍及世界时 他的身体适应了周围的环境
As "wise man" spread through the world, so his body responded to his surroundings.
过多的阳光可能有害
The rays of the sun in excess can be harmful
许多热带的居民获得皮肤里的黑色素
and many dwellers in the tropics acquired black pigment in their skins
保护他们免受伤害
which protected them from it.
但是太少的阳光也有害
But too little sunshine can also be bad for you.
身体需要它来制♥造♥维生素
The body needs it for vitamins,
例如，在北部，在拉普兰， 这里的种族有白皮肤
so in northern lands, in Lapland, for instance, races possess fair skins.
在亚洲，有一个橄榄色皮肤，斜眼睛的种族
In Asia, there developed a race with olive skins and slanting eyes.
有些人从白令海峡移居到新大♥陆♥
Some of them migrated across the Bering Strait into the New World
到他们仍然生活在其中的南美洲的雨林里
and down to the rainforests of South America, where they still live.
他们是很有技术的猎人， 其中一些人仍然寻找他们需要的东西
They too are skilled hunters, and some still find all they need
从森林中的野生动物和植物身上
from the wild animals and plants of their forests.
这是所有人类生存直至最近的一种方式
This was the way all human beings in the world existed until comparatively recently.
他们现在人数众多
Nowhere were they numerous.
他们对生命的期盼很短暂
Their expectation of life was short.
他们的出生率和孩子的生存
Their birth rate and the survival of their children
被食物短缺和他们生命中的危险所限制
kept in check by the scarcity of food and the hazards of their lives.
但是他们发起了一场革命 使得人类的数量迅速发展
But then came a revolution, one that was to start that explosion of man's population.
事情是这样的
And the trigger was this.
一种野生的麦子
A wild form of wheat or barley
在中东肥沃的三角洲像今天那样被种植
that grew then as now on the fertile deltas of the Middle East.
它结有很多种子， 很容易脱壳并含有丰富的营养
It's got a lot of seeds, easily separated from the husks and full of nourishment.
大约1万年前，人们意识到
About 10,000 years ago, man realised
不再需要找野生植物
he no longer need go searching for the wild plant.
他可以带回这些种子和种植它们
He could take these seeds and plant them.
然后他不再被迫进行漂泊不定的生活
And then he would no longer be compelled to follow the wandering life.
他可以定居
He could settle down.
一些动物也可以饲养在他的住处周围
Some animals too could be domesticated and kept permanently around his settlements,
当他需要肉的时候可以被宰杀
to be slaughtered when he wanted meat.
所以人类可以在彼此靠近的地方 建立永久的房♥屋
So human beings were able to build permanent homes in groups close by one another.
在地中海东端
And around the eastern end of the Mediterranean,
在中东和印度出现了小村庄
in the Middle East and India, small villages appeared.
小村庄变成城镇