1.文化的概念
段落大意：在人類學範疇，文化指一個社會裏人們學習、創造並分享的行為模式和思維模式，包括信仰、行為準則、語言、儀式、藝術、技術、著裝方式、飲食習慣、宗教、政治和經濟體係等。
Culture, in anthropology （人類學）, refers to the patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from another. It also separates humans from lower animals. A people’s culture includes their beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals （儀式）, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems.
2.文化的發展
段落大意：文化隨著人類進化而發展，文化的產生在很大程度上與人類的身體結構和特征有關。
Culture developed together with the evolution of human species, and is closely related to human biology. The ability of people to have culture comes in large part from their physical features. Humans have big, complex brains, an upright posture, free hands that can grasp and manipulate （操控） small objects, and a vocal tract （聲道） that can produce and articulate （清晰地發音） a wide range of sounds. These distinctively human physical features began to develop in African human ancestors more than four million years ago. The earliest physical evidence of culture is crude stone tools produced in East Africa over two million years ago.
3.文化產生的原因
段落大意：文化產生的主要原因是人們可以使用符號進行交流並理解符號。
People have culture primarily because they can communicate with and understand symbols. Symbols allow people to develop complex thoughts and to exchange those thoughts with others. Language and other forms of symbolic communication, such as art, enable people to create, explain, and record new ideas and information. A symbol sometimes has an indirect connection with the object, feeling, or behavior to which it refers, and sometimes there is no connection at all. For instance, most people in the United States find some meaning in the combination of the colors red, white, and blue, but those colors themselves have nothing to do with, for instance, the land that people call the United States, the concept of patriotism, or the US national anthem （國歌）.
4.人們發明符號來交流
段落大意：人們不斷發明新符號來表達新想法，可通過單一符號來表達許多不同的想法、情感或價值觀。對符號進行理解、創造和使用是人們與生俱來的能力。
To convey new ideas, people constantly invent new symbols, such as for mathematical formulas. In addition, people may use one symbol, such as a single word, to represent many different ideas, feelings, or values. Thus, symbols provide a flexible way for people to convey even very complex thoughts. For example, only through symbols can architects, engineers, and construction workers communicate the information necessary to construct a skyscraper or bridge. People have the capacity at birth to understand, construct, and communicate through symbols. Research has shown, for example, that infants have a basic structure of language—a sort of universal grammar—built into their minds. Infants are thus predisposed （易接受的） to learn the languages spoken by the people around them.
5.文化是後天習得的
段落大意：文化不是天生的，需通過學習才能掌握。適應和積累文化都需要一個長期的過程。
People are not born with culture, and they have to learn it. For instance, people must learn to speak and understand a language and to abide by （遵守） the rules of a society. In many societies, all people must learn to produce and prepare food and to construct shelters. In other societies, people must learn a skill to earn money, which they then use to provide for themselves. In all human societies, children learn culture from adults. Anthropologists call this process enculturation（文化適應）, or cultural transmission. Enculturation is a long process. A major part of it is learning the intricacies of a human language, which takes many years. Families commonly protect and enculturate children in the households since their birth for 15.years or more. Only at this point can children leave and establish their own households. People also continue to learn throughout their lifetimes. Thus, most societies respect their elders, who have accumulated most of the knowledge about their culture.
6.文化共享
段落大意：生活在同一個社會裏的人們共享文化，並集體創造和維護這一文化。
People living together in a society share culture. For example, almost all people living in the United States share the English language, dress in similar styles, eat many of the same foods, and celebrate many of the same holidays. People of a society collectively create and maintain culture. Societies preserve culture in the form of knowledge, such as scientific discoveries, objects, such as works of art, and traditions, such as the observance （遵守） of holidays.
7.自我定位依賴於文化
段落大意：自我定位在很大程度上依賴於文化，人在處於不同文化中時往往會產生混亂感。
Self-identity usually depends on culture to such a great extent that immersion （陷入） in a very different culture, with which a person does not share common ways of life or beliefs, can cause a feeling of confusion and disorientation （迷惑）. Anthropologists refer to this phenomenon as culture shock. In multicultural societies, such as the United States where people come from a diversity of cultures, different forms of culture can also lead to tension.
8.民族優越感
段落大意：民族優越感指某一社會的成員認為自己的文化比其他文化優越。這種優越感在一定程度上有助於社會的融合，但也會導致種族文化滅絕等慘絕人寰的事件。
Members of a society who share culture often share some feelings of ethnocentrism （民族優越感）, the notion that one’s culture is more sensible（明智的） than or superior to that of other societies. Ethnocentrism contributes to the integrity of society because it affirms people’s shared beliefs and values in the face of other, often contradictory, beliefs and values held by people of other cultural backgrounds. At its worst, ethnocentrism has led people to commit ethnocide （種族文化滅絕）, the destruction of cultures, and genocide （種族屠殺）, the destruction of entire populations. This happened, for example, to Jews （猶太人） living in Nazi （納粹） Germany in the 1940s.
9.文化交流
段落大意：沒有哪個社會能完全孤立地存在，不同社會之間會進行文化交流。實際上，所有社會都和其他社會有著某種聯係。
Since no human society exists in complete isolation, different societies also exchange and share culture. In fact, all societies have some interactions with others, some out of curiosity. Even highly self-sufficient societies sometimes need assistance from their neighbors. Today, since many people around the world use similar kinds of technology, such as cars, telephones, televisions, and computer networks, a form of global culture has been created, and it has become increasingly difficult to find culture that is totally exclusive.
10.文化交流的優缺點
段落大意：文化交流可以使所有社會受益，但這樣的交流也存在缺點。
Cultural exchange can provide benefits for all societies. Different societies can exchange ideas, labor force, manufactured goods, and natural resources with each other. However, such exchanges can also have drawbacks. Sometimes the introduction of another society’s culture can disrupt the cohesive （凝聚的） life of a people. For example, the introduction of consumerism （消費主義） into many small societies has led to what anthropologists refer to as cargo cults（貨物崇拜）. In cargo cults, people focus much of their religious energy and time on trying to magically acquire commercial goods. Cross-cultural exchange often results in what anthropologists call acculturation （文化互滲）, in which the members of one culture adopt features of another. This has happened, for example, when indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere adopted the language and many of the customs of Spain, which colonized South and Central America beginning in the 1500s.
11.文化適應性
段落大意：文化幫助人類社會在不斷變化的自然環境中生存下來，以上一冰河世紀末期為例進行說明。
Culture helps human societies survive in changing natural environments. For example, the end of the last Ice Age, beginning about 15,000.years ago, posed an enormous threat to the survival of human beings. Before this time, large portions of the northern hemisphere were covered in great sheets of ice that contained much of the earth’s water. In North America, large game animals that roamed （漫步） the vast tundra （凍土地帶） provided people with food and materials for clothing and simple shelters. When the earth warmed, large Ice Age game animals disappeared, and many land areas were submerged by rising sea levels from melting ice. Nevertheless, people survived. They developed new technologies and learned how to subsist （活下去） on new plant and animal species. Eventually some people settled into villages and built permanent, durable houses and farms.
12.文化引發的長期問題
段落大意：從長遠來看，文化的成功會引發問題，如自然資源的大量消耗、廢棄物的增多、氣候的變化等。
Successes of culture can sometimes create problems in the long run. Over the last 200.years, people have begun to use large quantities of natural resources and energy and have produced a great amount of material and chemical wastes. The global population now consumes some crucial natural resources, such as petroleum, timber （木材）, and mineral ores（礦）, faster than nature can produce them. Many scientists believe that in the process of burning fuels and producing wastes, people are altering the global climate in unpredictable and possibly harmful ways. Thus, the success of the present-day global culture of production and commerce may be temporary.
13.藝術的概念
段落大意：藝術是人類活動的產物，許多人認為，藝術是文化的終極形式，因為它是一種純粹的表達形式，完全脫離人類的基本需求。但有些人持相反觀點。藝術大體上可分為物質藝術和非物質藝術。
Art is a distinctly human production, and many people consider it the ultimate form of culture because it can have the quality of pure expression, entirely separate from basic human needs. However, some anthropologists actually regard artistic expression as a basic human need, as basic as food and water. Some art takes the form of material production, and many utilitarian （實用的） items have artistic qualities. Other forms of art, such as music or acting, reside in the mind and body and express themselves by performance. The material arts include painting, pottery （陶藝）, sculpture, textiles （紡織品） and clothing, and cookery. Nonmaterial arts include music, dance, drama and dramatic arts, storytelling, and written narratives.
14.藝術有助於建立個體及群體同一性
段落大意：在大部分社會裏，人們通過藝術形式來塑造個人，並實現群體認同。
In most societies people establish their personal and group identity through such forms of artistic expression as dress and body adornment （裝飾品）, ceremonial costumes （服裝） , dances, or group symbols. For example, many Native American groups in the Pacific Northwest carve massive wooden totem （圖騰） poles as symbols of their group identity and history. The stylized figures carved into totem poles represent important clan （宗族） ancestors and stories of important historical events.
15.藝術帶來精神慰藉
段落大意：許多人把藝術作為表達精神世界或從精神世界尋求慰藉的途徑。
Many people use art as a vehicle for spiritual expression or to ask for help from the spiritual world. For instance, some archaeologists believe that one of the earliest known sculptures, a voluptuously （肉感地） shaped female figure made in Willendorf, Austria over 24,000.years ago and known as the Venus of Willendorf, might have been used to invoke （召喚） supernatural powers to bring its makers reproductive fertility （繁殖力）.
16.政府與藝術
段落大意：政府會雇用藝術家來創造支持其政治體係的藝術作品，並通過這些藝術品體現其高貴的社會地位。
In large societies, governments may hire artisans（工匠） to produce works that will support the political structure. For example, in the Inca Empire （印加帝國） , which dominated the Andean （安第斯山脈的） region of Peru （秘魯）, Ecuador （厄瓜多爾）, Chile （智利）, Bolivia （玻利維亞）, and Argentina （阿根廷） in the 15th and 16th centuries, the elite hired metalworkers and textile makers to make exclusive gold and silver jewelry or create special clothing and adornments for them, which indicated high status. In contrast, non-elites wore coarse （粗糙的）, ordinary clothing, reflecting their low status.
17.藝術的商業和政治目的
段落大意：現在，許多人出於商業和政治目的而創造藝術，社會通過專利法對一些藝術品進行保護。
In present-day large societies, many people produce art for commercial and political purposes in addition to social, personal, and spiritual reasons. A great number of artists make a living by working for businesses that use art to advertise commercial products. Most large societies today also have patent（專利的） laws that protect the content of artworks, such as books, films, songs, dances, and paintings.
18.技術進步對文化的影響
段落大意：近幾十年來，技術的快速進步改變了文化和文化交流的性質。
Rapid changes in technology in the last several decades have changed the nature of culture and cultural exchange. People around the world can make economic transactions （交易） and transmit information to each other almost instantaneously （即刻地） through the use of computers and Internet. Corporations have created a form of global culture based on worldwide commercial markets.
19.商業利益對文化和社會的影響
段落大意：商業利益影響了文化和社會結構。
Local culture and social structure are now shaped by large and powerful commercial interests in ways that earlier anthropologists could not have imagined. Early anthropologists thought of societies and their cultures as fully independent systems. However, today many nations have become multicultural societies, composed of numerous smaller subcultures. Cultures also transcend （超越） national boundaries. For instance, people in many countries now know some English and have contact with American exports, such as clothing of certain brand-name, technological products, films and music, and mass-produced foods.
20.言論自由的概念
段落大意：言論自由指個人擁有口頭及書麵表達的自由，不受政府限製，但一些言論除外。
Freedom of expression, both oral and written, refers to freedom from governmental prior restraint, except as such expression constitutes libel （侮辱）, slander （誹謗）, obscenity （猥褻）, sedition （煽動騷亂）, or criminal conduct such as bribery, perjury （偽證）, or incitement （煽動） to riot. In the US, this freedom is protected by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, and is considered essential to the vitality（生命力） of representative government （代議製政府）.
21.對言論自由的限製
段落大意：完全不受限製的言論自由會對他人的權利造成侵害，因此，對言論自由進行限製是必要且不可避免的。
As with other forms and modes of liberty, completely unrestricted freedom of expression leads to infringement （侵害） on the rights of others, and it has long been recognized that restraints on liberty of utterance （意見發表） are necessary and inevitable. The nature and extent of the restraints and the means by which they are enforced have constituted important problems in law and government. Historically, most of these problems have revolved （圍繞） around the expression of ideas that were antagonistic （敵對的） to prevailing religious, political, and economic beliefs and institutions, and thus were adjudged（宣判） subversive（顛覆性的）. In time of war, freedom of speech is necessarily abridged（被限製） to some extent in the interests of public security.
22.文化互滲
段落大意：文化互滲指兩個或多個截然不同的社會之間通過長期接觸促使文化發生改變的過程。
Acculturation refers to the process in which continuous contact between two or more distinct societies gradually leads to cultural change. This can happen in two ways. The beliefs and customs of the groups may merge （合並） almost equally, which may result in a single culture. More often, however, one society absorbs the cultural patterns of another through a process of selection and modification （修改）. This phenomenon often occurs because of political or military domination. It may cause considerable psychological disturbance and social unrest （動蕩）.
23.同化
段落大意：同化指個體或群體吸收並接收另一群體的主流文化的過程。
Assimilation （同化） refers to the process in which individuals or groups absorb and adopt the dominant culture of another group. The term“assimilation”is generally used with regard to immigrants to a new land, such as the various ethnic groups who have settled in the United States. New customs and attitudes are acquired through contact and communication. The transfer of customs is not simply a one-way process. Each group of immigrants contributes some of its own cultural traits （特征） to its new society. Assimilation usually involves a gradual change and takes place in varying degrees. Full assimilation occurs when new members of a society become indistinguishable from older members.
24.民間傳說
段落大意：民間傳說泛指任何文化中口頭流傳下來的語言、精神及物質方麵的東西。
Folklore （民間傳說） is a general term for the verbal（語言的）, spiritual, and material aspects of any culture that are transmitted orally, by observation, or by imitation. This body of traditional material is preserved and passed on from generation to generation, with constant variations shaped by memory, immediate need or purpose, and degree of individual talent. The word folklore was coined in 1846.by the English antiquary （古董商人） William John Thomas to replace the term “popular antiquities”（古物）.
25.民間傳說與流行文化
段落大意：真正的民間傳說和流行文化不同，但又彼此滲透。
Folklore scholars today distinguish between true folklore and material such as the much-repeated anecdote （軼事） about George Washington and the cherry tree, the songs of the American composers Stephen Collins Foster and Irving Berlin, the tales about the legendary American lumberjack （伐木工人） Paul Bunyan, or syndicated （聯合同時發表） comic strips （連環畫）. Such things, commonly referred to by the media as part of the folk heritage, are defined by some folklorists as popular lore. However, folk tradition and popular tradition do intermingle（混合）, and popular lore continually draws on genuine folklore for inspiration.
26.黑猩猩的語言能力
段落大意：語言提供了存儲、處理和交流信息的手段，這些信息數量豐富，遠非除人類外的其他動物所能掌握，人們通過教黑猩猩語言已證實了這一點。
Language provides a means to store, process, and communicate amounts of information that vastly exceed the capabilities of nonhuman animals. For instance, chimpanzees （黑猩猩）, the closest genetic relatives of humans, use a few dozen calls and a variety of gestures to communicate in the wild. People have taught some chimps to communicate using American sign language and picture-based languages, and some have developed vocabularies of a few hundred words. However, we have to see that an unabridged （未刪節的） English dictionary might contain more than half-a-million vocabulary entries（詞條）. Chimpanzees have also not clearly demonstrated the ability to use grammar, which is crucial for communicating complex thoughts.
27.語言體係
段落大意：人類創造出複雜的語言體係來確保生存、表達思想感情、講述過去的故事、同他人談判等。
While other animals use a limited range of sounds or signals to communicate, humans have developed complex systems of language that are used to ensure survival, to express ideas and emotions, to tell stories which record the past, and to negotiate with one another. Oral （spoken） language is a feature of every human society or culture. Anthropologists studying ancient cultures have several theories about how human language began and developed. The earliest language systems probably combined vocal sounds with hand or body signals to express messages. Some words may be imitative （模仿的） of natural sounds. Others may have come from emotional expressions, such as laughter or crying. Language, some theorists believe, is an outgrowth （發展結果） of group activities, such as working together or dancing.
28.身體語言
段落大意：身體語言指通過身體動作傳達信息的過程，在不同的文化中，身體語言有一些共通之處，但也有較大的不同。
Body language refers to the conveying of messages through body movements other than through spoken languages. Some gestures can have quite specific meanings, such as those for saying good-bye or for asking someone to approach. Other gestures generally accompany speech, such as those used to emphasize a particular point. Although there are cross-cultural similarities in body language, substantial differences still exist both in the extent to which body language is used and in the interpretations given to particular instances of body language. For example, the head gestures for “yes”and “no”used in the Balkans （巴爾幹人） seem inverted（顛倒的） to other Europeans. Also, the physical distance kept between participants in a conversation varies from culture to culture. A distance considered normal in one culture can strike someone from another culture as aggressively close.
29.國際語言
段落大意：國際語言的概念，以及一些主要的國際語言。
International languages include both existing languages that have become international means of communication and languages artificially constructed to serve this purpose. The most famous and widespread artificial international language is Esperanto（世界語）. However, the most widespread international languages are not artificial. In medieval Europe, Latin was the principal international language. Today, English is used in countries around the globe as an official language or as the main means of international communication. French is the second most widely used language, largely due to the substantial （巨大的） number of African countries with French as their official language. Other languages have more restricted regional use, such as Spanish in Spain and Latin America, Arabic in the Middle East, and Russian in the republics of the former USSR.
30.外語學習
段落大意：當人們處於外語環境中，或社會對外語學習的期望較高時，外語學習效果會更好。
While children experience little difficulty in acquiring more than one language, after puberty （青春期）, people generally must expend greater effort to learn a second language and they often achieve lower levels of competence in that language. People learn second languages more successfully when they become immersed （沉浸） in the communities that speak those languages. People also learn second languages more successfully in cultures in which acquiring a second language is expected, as in most African countries, than they do in cultures in which second-language proficiency （精通） is considered unusual, as in most English-speaking countries.
31.手勢語言
段落大意：對手勢語言的簡介，手勢語主要為聾人所使用。
Sign languages, which differ from signed versions of spoken languages, are the languages adopted by most members of deaf communities. Linguists have only recently begun to appreciate the levels of complexity and expressiveness found in sign languages. In general, sign languages are arbitrary in their use of signs. No reason exists, other than convention, for a certain sign to have a particular meaning. Sign languages also exhibit dual （雙重的） patterning, in which a small number of components combine to produce the overall meaning of signs, similar to the way in which letters combine to make words in English. In addition, sign languages use complex syntax （句法） and can discuss the same wide range of topics as in spoken languages.