There is No Justice in History
詞匯用語
The ancient Chinese believed that when the goddess Nü Wa created humans from earth, she kneaded aristocrats from ?ne yellow soil, whereas commoners were formed from brown mud.
V-T When you knead dough or other food, you press and squeeze it with your hands so that it becomes smooth and ready to bake. 揉 (面團等)
例：Lightly knead the mixture on a floured surface. 在撒有面粉的案板上輕揉該混合物。
2. V-T If you knead a part of someone's body, you press or squeeze it with your fingers. 揉捏
例：She felt him knead the aching muscles. 她感到他在揉捏那些疼痛的肌肉。
Concepts of purity and impurity were essential elements in Hindu religion, and they were harnessed to buttress the social pyramid.
例：The builders buttressed that wall with stone structures. 建筑工人們用石結構加固墻。
例：Try to buttress the points you make in these chapters with some details. 竭力支持在這些帶有某些詳細敘述的篇章中你所闡明的論點。
Such vicious circles can go on for centuries and even millennia, perpetuating an imagined hierarchy that sprang from a chance historical occurrence.
1. V-TIf someone or something perpetuates a situation, system, or belief, especially a bad one, they cause it to continue. 使繼續 (尤指不好的情形、體系或信仰)
例：We must not perpetuate the religious divisions of the past. 我們絕不能使過去的宗教分裂繼續下去。
例：A similar vicious circle perpetuated the racial hierarchy in modern America. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, the European conquerors imported millions of African slaves to work the mines and plantations of America.
例：In most cases the hierarchy originated as the result of a set of accidental historical circumstances and was then perpetuated and refined over many generations as different groups developed vested interests in it.
It’s only human mothers steeped in particular cultures who make a scene if their son has a fling with the boy next door.(當眾)大吵大鬧，當眾出丑
例：Make a scene as you carve through fresh powder on a variety of runs (there are at least 65 trails for all skill levels).
例：Paulose suggests firing people on Friday afternoons, asking them to collect their things and escorting them out of the building in case they try to make a scene.
Yet she didn’t have a fit when her son, Alexander the Great, brought his lover Hephaestion home for dinner. [口語]大發雷霆
例：Don Quixote would have a fit if he could see what has become of his native Spain.
例：Microsoft might want to, but Janet Reno would have a fit.
例：Most people on the street, talk about the glen, which is what locals call Pittencrieff Park, although one woman comments wryly that Carnegie would"have a fit" if he saw the state of Dunfermline now.
The same sort of multitasking applies to our sexual organs and behaviour. Sex first evolved for procreation and courtship rituals as a way of sizing up the fitness of a potential mate.
PHRASAL VERBIf you size up a person or situation, you carefully look at the person or think about the situation, so that you can decide how to act. 估計; 品評[非正式]
例：Some U.S. manufacturers have been sizing up the UK as a possible market for their clothes.一些美國制造商一直把英國視為其服裝的潛在市場。
例：We also were deposed, which gave us the chance to size up the opposing counsel.
例：First order of business is to size up the damage in order to contain it.
Women can match men as far as hatred, greed and abuse are concerned, but when push comes to shove, the theory goes, men are more willing to engage in raw physical violence.
PHRASEIf you talk about what you think will happenifpush comes to shove, you are talking about what you think will happen if a situation becomes very bad or difficult. 情況不妙時[非正式]
例：If push comes to shove, if you should lose your case in the court, what will you do? 如果情況不妙，你在法庭上輸了官司，你會怎么辦？
例：But I am telling you, if push comes to shove, I can't say anything.
例：When push comes to shove, operators will pay hyperbolic prices to keep a reactor humming.
例：When push comes to shove, a clear majority of teachers still support their unions.
The militarily incompetent Augustus succeeded in establishing a stable imperial regime, achieving something that eluded both Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, who were much better generals. 好生動啊感覺！
V-TIf something that you want eludes you, you fail to obtain it. 不為…所獲得[no passive]
例： Sleep eluded her. 她失眠了。
漢英積累
富貴者，黃土人；貧賤者，引繩人也 when the goddess Nü Wa created humans from earth, she kneaded aristocrats from fine yellow soil, whereas commoners were formed from brown mud.
由窮致富 from rags to riches
精神病院 mental asylum
塌鼻子；高鼻子 flattened nose; upturned nose
甲骨文 oracle bones
列兵，二等兵〔級別最低的士兵〕private (the top o?cers did not work their way up from the rank of private)
內容
歷史從無正義。從古至今，社會成員之間總有階級之分。人類需要階級的存在，但階級并非某個社會所認為的那樣是自然而真實的，階級只是人類意識虛構的產物罷了。
階級形成的方式（巧合+既得利益者的鞏固）
In most cases the hierarchy originated as the result of a set of accidental historical circumstances and was then perpetuated and refined over many generations as different groups developed vested interests in it.
階級的固有性（惡性循環）靠什么維持：the fear of pollution
The fear of pollution is not a complete fabrication of priests and princes, however. It probably has its roots in biological survival mechanisms that make humans feel an instinctive revulsion towards potential disease carriers, such as sick persons and dead bodies. If you want to keep any human group isolated – women, Jews, Roma, gays, blacks – the best way to do it is convince everyone that these people are a source of pollution.
印度種姓制度就是一個例子——不同階級相互交往不僅是對個人階級的污染，也是對社會風氣的污染。
現代美洲也有著類似的現象。作者講述了美洲以種族為劃分的階級是如何形成和鞏固的：
首先，美洲涌現了大量的非洲奴隸。為什么？
1. 非洲近，成本低。
2. 非洲已有發達的奴隸貿易。
3. 美洲土地上肆虐的疾病來源于非洲，非洲人已經對這類疾病產生了一定的抵抗力。
此時，歷史巧合發揮了作用，更能適應熱帶生活的非洲人反而成了相對脆弱的歐洲人的附庸。
人們選擇非洲人做奴隸，只是因為更加便宜方便，但是沒有人愿意承認這一點。為了正當化他們的選擇，用于抹黑非洲人的宗教和科學“神話”便出現了：
Theologians argued that Africans descend from Ham, son of Noah, saddled by his father with a curse that his offspring would be slaves. Biologists argued that blacks are less intelligent than whites and their moral sense less developed. Doctors alleged that blacks live in filth and spread diseases – in other words, they are a source of pollution.
盡管奴隸制逐漸被廢除，但是將非洲人定位為劣等人的“神話”依然深入人心。與此同時，即使不再是奴隸，常年低人一等的貧窮生活也使得非洲人難以獲得白人的工作、財富和社會地位。生于受過高等教育家庭的富裕白人小孩，要比生于貧窮骯臟的黑人社區的小孩更容易獲得財富和成功。于是劣等人“神話”似乎不斷應驗，社會偏見因而進一步加深，黑人的成功又會受到更大的阻力。與此同時，明目張膽將黑人視為劣等人的社會法規和社會規范逐漸出現，在種種桎梏下，黑人難以證明自身的能力，這些法律規范的基礎假設因此得到了證實和鞏固。社會偏見、帶有偏見的法律規范和原生家庭的不幸，形成了一個惡行循環，讓黑人的地位遲遲難以得到提升。
性別差異
在很多古代文化中，女性只是男性的所屬物，是可以被交易的財產。如：強奸的受害人不是女性本身，而是她的擁有者——某個男性。直到2006年，還有53個國家沒有將婚內強奸定為犯罪。又如：古希臘的女人不算公民，沒有選舉權和受教育權。這說明女人天生不如男嗎？男女的確有差異，比如只有子宮才能孕育后代。但是人們宣稱的兩性差異大多是沒有科學基礎的，是我們的社會強加的。同性戀問題道理也是類似的。
我們要如何分辨哪些是真的生物學差別，哪些才是社會強加的？
只要記住：天生賦予能力，文化造成封閉。天生的能力賦予了人類無數的可能性，但文化卻以“不自然”為名，封閉了許多可能性，只留下一部分可能性，并稱其為“自然的”。但事實上，沒有什么是“不自然的”，任何可能發生的事情都是“自然的”。生物學上，并沒有所謂的自然和不自然之分。自然和不自然的概念其實是出自基督教神學：與神的旨意相符的行為是“自然的”，與其相悖的行為是“不自然的”。
生物學的男性只有在遵循某種社會秩序時才會被社會認同為合格的男性，生物學的女性也只有在遵循符合女性規范的社會秩序是才會被認為是合格的女性：
當男人有什么好？
至少從農業革命開始，大多人類社會都是父權社會。在父權社會中，男人總是比女人享受更多的資源福利，社會所認同的男人的特質總是比女人的特質更受到重視和尊重。如果說人生是賽跑，男人的最高獎是金牌，而女人最多也就拿個銅牌。
為什么會有這種偏向？
但是既然這么多文化都是偏向于男人的，那么男女階級的形成一定不是因為某種巧合，而是一種必然。這種必然是什么，至今沒有定論。
最常見的一種理論認為：男人比女人強壯，于是他們壟斷了食物生產，也因此獲得了更強的政治影響力，女人迫于無奈必須服從男性。
但是這一理論有兩大缺陷：
1. 女性不如男性強壯只是平均來說，也只是某些方面較弱。
2. 歷史上，女性也被排除在許多不需要大量體力勞動的行業之外，如法官和律師。社會權力和身體強壯與否沒有必然的聯系。甚至很多情況下，身體強壯反而是社會權力的反義詞。
另一種理論認為：男人比女人更有侵略性，更喜歡在緊要關頭時用拳頭說話。所以打仗基本依靠男人，戰爭越多、越大，男人的社會地位就越高。
但這一理論也站不住腳。指揮戰爭的往往不是最具侵略性的，而是擁有極高社會等級的人，可是為什么不是貴族/王族女人呢？打仗更不是有勇無謀就可以勝利的。
還有一種理論認為：在長年的生物進化中，女性和男性進化出了不同的生存和繁衍策略。最強大最聰明的男性才能搶到配偶，他們的后代也會繼承他們智慧好勝的基因。必須懷胎十月的女性則需要一位丈夫的庇護才能生存，因此她只能凡事聽丈夫的，她們的后代也會繼承她們溫馴服從的基因。那些專心爭奪權力的女性則得不到繁衍，她們的基因也因此無法傳給后代。
但這一理論同樣站不住腳。孕婦為什么一定要依靠男人，而不是姐妹？爭強好勝的男人就一定能占據社會高位？大象等動物，雖然也有需要依靠他人的女性和爭強好勝的男人，卻發展出了母系社會。女性構筑社會網絡，撫養后代。男性在永無休止的互相爭斗中喪失了與女性“平起平坐”的機會。
人類脆弱的天性使得我們特別擅長合作、交流、操縱人心。為什么擁有這些特質的女性沒有成功操縱男性，反而是理應不如女人擅長合作的男人最終獲得了掌控權？這個問題至今沒有答案。
但是我們已經知道，在上個世紀，性別的角色發生了翻天覆地的變化。今天的許多國家給予了男女相當的權利，也開始重新審視我們固有的性別觀。盡管男女不平等依然存在，但這一差距正迅速縮小。幾十年前相當荒謬的女性選舉權在如今被視作理所當然。
我的設想
我覺得如果人類真的都起源于非洲，那么父系社會的形成或許還是可以用巧合+鞏固來解釋。可能早在人類分散到各個大洲前，還與黑猩猩無異的我們就已經（因為巧合+無意識鞏固）是父系社會了。即使到了后來，分散或者分裂出去甚至以后變得與世隔絕的族群也還延續著這一傳統。
看到一篇有關母系社會很有意思的文章，也分享下：
真的有過母系社會階段嗎？ | 大象公會
父系社會只是人類近幾千年才樹立，之前幾萬年的氏族社會早期、中期，始終是母系社會：平均分配，共同勞動，女人居于首領位置，經濟和社會上占主導和支配地位；孩子出生，只知道母親；財產的繼承，只有女性才有資格……可惜，這種美麗的說法只是個謊言罷了。本文由《沐猿而冠》部分章節編輯而成，該書近期將由大象公會推出。
摘錄
Such vicious circles can go on for centuries and even millennia, perpetuating an imagined hierarchy that sprang from a chance historical occurrence. Unjust discrimination often gets worse, not better, with time. Money comes to money, and poverty to poverty. Education comes to education, and ignorance to ignorance. Those once victimised by history are likely to be victimised yet again. And those whom history has privileged are more likely to be privileged again.
Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by de?nition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition. No culture has ever bothered to forbid men to photosynthesise, women to run faster than the speed of light, or negatively charged electrons to be attracted to each other.
Sex is child’s play; but gender is serious business. To get to be a member of the male sex is the simplest thing in the world. You just need to be born with an X and a Y chromosome. To get to be a female is equally simple. A pair of X chromosomes will do it. In contrast, becoming a man or a woman is a very complicated and demanding undertaking. Since most masculine and feminine qualities are cultural rather than biological, no society automatically crowns each male a man, or every female a woman. Nor are these titles laurels that can be rested on once they are acquired. Males must prove their masculinity constantly, throughout their lives, from cradle to grave, in an endless series of rites and performances. And a woman’s work is never done – she must continually convince herself and others that she is feminine enough.
Women are often stereotyped as better manipulators and appeasers than men, and are famed for their superior ability to see things from the perspective of others. If there’s any truth in these stereotypes, then women should have made excellent politicians and empire-builders, leaving the dirty work on the battlefields to testosterone-charged but simple-minded machos. Popular myths notwithstanding, this rarely happened in the real world. It is not at all clear why not.
