论14世纪英国的聚落环境与黑死病传播

The Local Environment of Settlements and the Spread of the Black Death in the 14^(th) Century England

黑死病在14世纪的英国流行期间,既有遍及全国的普遍性,又体现出不同人群和地域之间的差异性。这种流行特点与当时英国的聚落环境密切相关。其中,聚落空间环境为鼠、蚤、人的紧密共存创造了条件,聚落社会环境则使得瘟疫可以在人与人之间迅速传播;同时,这两者还相互联系,依据不同的社会、自然条件,对瘟疫的传播形成影响。但无论是聚落空间环境,还是聚落社会环境,都是在特定的自然和社会条件下人类创造的一种生存和生活环境,因此瘟疫可以依托聚落环境而肆虐,亦可随着聚落环境的改变而受到控制。在这背后,则是人在与瘟疫博弈中获得主动的不懈努力。

The Black Death devastated the whole England in the 14th century.The mode of its spread was closely related to the local environment of settlements.For instance,The spatial environment of settlements facilitated the coexistence of rat,flea and human,while the social environment of settlements accelerated the spread of the plague.Both factors mentioned above worked together and finally influenced the spread of the epidemic according to different social and natural conditions.However,both the environments were created in specific natural and social conditions by the human beings.As a result,epidemics could ont only be controlled but also be aggravated by the environments.The struggle against the pestilence was a reflex of the untiring efforts of human beings to get upper hand over the plagues.