📖2018-07-09 人类简史9

▶️第三章 

⭕️会说话的鬼

想再深入描述远古时代的精神灵性，都会沦为假设猜测，因为我们几乎没有证据能够佐证；即使是那极少数的文物和洞穴绘画，也能有各种不同的诠释方式。

Any attempt to describe the specifics of archaic spirituality is highly speculative, as there is next to no evidence to go by and the little evidence we have—a handful of artifacts and cave paintings—can be interpreted in myriad ways. 

⭕️和平还是战争

采集社会可能有许多不同的宗教和社会结构，可以预测他们也同样有不同的暴力倾向。可能在某些时期，某些地区一片平静祥和，但在其他地区却是动乱不断。

Just as foragers exhibited a wide array of religions and social structures, so, too, did they probably demonstrate a variety of violence rates. While some areas and some periods of time may have enjoyed peace and tranquility, others were riven by ferocious conflicts.

⭕️沉默的帷幕

p61：“讲到远古的采集生活，如果我们连宏观景象都难以重建，想要重塑特定事件就更是难如登天。” 

If the larger picture of ancient forager life is hard to reconstruct, particular events are largely irretrievable.

▶️第四章 毁天灭地的人类洪水

p64：“人类首次抵达澳大利亚绝对算是大事一件，其重要性不亚于哥伦布抵达美洲或是阿波罗11号登上月球。这是人类第一次成功离开亚非大陆生态系统，也是第一次有大型陆生哺乳动物能从亚非大陆抵达澳大利亚。”

The journey of the first humans to Australia is one of the most important events in history, at least as important as Columbus' journey to America or the Apollo 11 expedition to the moon. It was the first time any human had managed to leave the Afro-Asian ecological system—indeed, the first time any large terrestrial mammal had managed to cross from Afro-Asia to Australia. 

有袋哺乳动物（marsupial ）在澳大利亚原来可是最高的统治阶级。然而，智人踏上澳大利亚海滩的那一壳，就正式在这片大陆登上食物链顶端，而且是多种巨型动物灭绝的罪魁祸首。