[转帖] [2011.11.18] THE BEST TIME: AMERICA, C.15,000BC 历史上最好的时间地点4

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http://www.ecocn.org/thread-60953-1-1.html
THE BEST TIME: AMERICA, C.15,000BC
最好的时间：美国，公元前1万5千年左右


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Lucy Kellaway argues that if you want to live with equality and good health, you need to be a hunter-gatherer ...
露茜·凯乐维认为如果你要在平等且健康的环境下生活，你需要当一个狩猎采集者

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, November/December 2011

For women, there was only one time and place better than here and now to be alive—and that was 10,000 to 20,000 years ago on the Pacific north-west coast of what is now America, or anywhere else that was nice and fertile.

对于女性来说，历史上只有一个时间地点要比当下这里更好，那就是1万到2万年前的现在美国西北太平洋海岸地区，或者当时任何其它富饶愉快的地方。

Men and women in these hunter-gatherer tribes were the most equal they have ever been. Rich and poor were pretty equal too. With no property, there was no question of feeling hard done by when you failed to keep up with the Paleolithic Joneses. There was no unemployment, no horrible bosses.

这些狩猎采集部落内男女的平等程度达到了史无前例的最高点。贫富也基本平等。没有财产，你也不需要为了生活不如你的石器时代同辈而感到难受。没有失业，也没有糟糕的老板。

Everyone was self-employed, with women toiling away at one of life’s nicest pastimes: digging up roots and picking berries. The great thing about foraging was that it didn’t take all day, and so left more time for enjoyment than humans have had at any time since. In the absence of iPads and PlayStations, people frittered away their time on three pleasures that the modern age does not encourage: chatting, playing with children and having sex with more than one person. When Larkin said that sexual intercourse began in 1963, it was a good line, just several thousand years out.

所有人都是自雇人士，女性以生活中最愉快的一种消遣度日：挖掘根块，采摘野莓。采集最好的一点在于它用不了一整天的时间，因此人们在忙完后还有大把时间进行休闲，超过了人类历史上之后的任何时代。没有iPad和PlayStation，人们把时间都挥霍在三件现代社会并不鼓励的事情上：闲聊，和孩子们玩，以及和超过一个对象做爱。拉金说过性交是从1963年开始的，这句话听上去不错，但是时间上弄错了几千年。

Hunter-gatherers were taller and healthier than the farmers who followed them. They had more varied diets and so weren’t at risk of famine. They also had great teeth. While the more recent past was ruined by toothache, these earlier people achieved American teeth without the tedium of flossing and pricey visits to the hygienist.

狩猎采集者比之后取代他们的农民更高大，也更健康。他们的饮食更多样化，因此受到灾荒影响的风险也较小。他们还有很好的牙齿。人类在历史上更接近现代的时期里饱受牙痛之苦，而这些早期人类不需要使用枯燥的牙线，也不需要进行昂贵的洗牙就有着一口雪白整齐的牙齿。

There were a few disadvantages to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Your chances of being ripped limb from limb by a wild animal were greater than if you live in, say, Toronto in 2011. And when you got fed up with chatting to fellow tribesfolk (or having sex with them), you couldn’t watch “Downton Abbey”. On the other hand, you were most unlikely to die from obesity-related diseases or get blown up by terrorists. And you wouldn’t have felt obliged to employ a therapist to help with low self-esteem brought on by the fact that your back view isn’t as trim as Pippa Middleton’s.  

狩猎采集生活也有一些不利之处。你被一只野兽五马分尸的机会要比你呆在譬如说2011年的多伦多时要大多了。而当你对于和其它部落成员聊天（或做爱）感到厌烦时，你不可能打开电视机改而观看“唐顿庄园”。但换个角度看，你几乎不可能死于肥胖相关疾病或恐怖分子袭击。你也不太可能会因为自己的臀部曲线不如皮帕·米德尔顿漂亮而需要心理医生来帮助重塑你的自尊心。

Lucy Kellaway is a columnist and associate editor on the Financial Times. She is a former Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards.
露茜·凯乐维是《金融时报》的专栏作家及副编辑。她曾获得英国媒体奖项颁发的年度最佳专栏作家奖。

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2,3,4篇比第1篇水很多，呵呵。