“族群”与“民族”:古代群落研究的叙词辨析--兼论古代犹太人的民族特性

“Ethnic Group”and“Nation”:A Critical Analysis of the Terms about Ancient Peoples and Research on the Ethnic Characteristics of Ancient Jews

“族群”与“民族”可视为跨历史的分析术语或者叙词,适用于不同历史时期,但任何一种社会关系均无法完全精确地符合用以描述它的术语,科学术语是为研究之便创造的工具与媒介,应该适时地调整术语概念及其与事实的关系。族群与民族现象古已有之,只是不一定完全符合现代概念的界定,因此,既要以客位视角借鉴现代理论方法,也要以主位视角深入古代话语世界具体分析。古代犹太人对领地空间存有持续性的共同想象,拥有稳定的文化、共同的宗教信仰以及多种表征之下的民族自决意识,无论是从叙词的适用性还是族属特性层面均可被视为一个民族,印证古代民族具有历史合理性,但并非以现代民族类型为标准,人类社会也不存在理想的民族模型。由于古今语言的差异和古代语境缺少相关科学术语,任何古史研究均面临古今语汇对译的问题,只要排除时代误植的风险,借用现代叙词无可厚非,以避免创造新词造成更多歧义。

“Ethnic group”and“nation”can be regarded as cross-historical analytical terms or descriptors,applicable to different historical periods,but no social relationship can fully and precisely match the terms used to describe it.Scientific terms are tools and media created for the convenience of research,therefore the concept of terms and their relationship with facts should be adjusted timely.Ethnic group and ethnic phenomena existed in ancient times,but they may not fully conform to the definition of modern concepts.Therefore,we should not only draw lessons from modern theoretical methods from an etic perspective,but also make in-depth analysis of the ancient discourse world from an emic perspective.Ancient Jews had a persistent common imagination of territorial space,a stable culture,common religious beliefs,and a sense of national self-determination with various indicia.They could be regarded as a nation in terms of both the applicability of descriptors and ethnic characteristics,which confirmed the historical rationality of ancient peoples,but not according to the standards of modern ethnic types,as there is no ideal ethnic model of human society.Due to the differences between ancient and modern languages and the lack of relevant scientific terms in ancient context,any study of ancient history is faced with the problem of the translation of ancient and modern vocabularies.As long as the risk of anachronism is excluded,it is reasonable to borrow modern terms to avoid causing more ambiguities by creating new terms.