论人群体质与民族文化的交叉作用及其后果

On the Interaction of Group Constitution and Ethnic Cultures and its Results

在人类学的学科建构中,体质人类学和文化人类学是两门研究任务、对象、方法各不相同的学科。文化人类学致力于研究文化的建构、功能和演化,体质人类学则研究人类体质差异的时空分布及人类体质的遗传变异。这两门学科之间存在着本质上的区别,因而,研究的方法和结论不能简单地套用。然而,这两门学科的对象都是人,而人类又必然是生物性和社会性的并存,人类的这两种特性又会客观地存在于相关民族文化的建构中。人群的体质差异肯定会对民族文化的建构起作用。必然是文化建构中需要加以适应的客观对象。相反的,一种长期延续的民族文化,由于要直接规约着相关人群的社会生活,这就不可避免地又会使相关的民族成员获得某些后天的体质特征。不注意到体质与文化的交叉作用,某些文化事实将得不到合理的解释,某些共同的后天体质特征也无法得到正确的说明。这两方面的研究不仅对文化人类学有价值,对体质人类学也有价值。一方面,可以丰富这两门学科的研究内容;另一方面,在实践中又有多重的应用价值。

In the disciplinary construction, physical anthropology and cultural anthropology are two disciplines with different tasks, objects and methods. Cultural anthropology aims to study the con- struction, development and functions of culture, while physical anthropology aims at studying the physical differences of human beings in different places and their physical inheritance and variability. Because of their differences, there are different research approaches and results. However, the object of the two disciplines is human beings who have their typical biological and social traits reflecting their ethnic cultures. The physical differences of human groups will surely exert some influence on the construction of ethnic cultures. An ethic culture with a long history will directly control the social life of its group and will surely endow its members with some postnatal physical traits. The ignorance of the interaction of constitution and culture will lead to the failure in explaining some cultural facts and some postnatal physical traits. The study of the two aspects will benefit both physical anthropology and cultural anthropology.