There is No Justice in History
词汇用语
The ancient Chinese believed that when the goddess Nü Wa created humans from earth, she kneaded aristocrats from ɹne yellow soil, whereas commoners were formed from brown mud.
V-T When you knead dough or other food, you press and squeeze it with your hands so that it becomes smooth and ready to bake. 揉 (面团等)
例：Lightly knead the mixture on a floured surface. 在撒有面粉的案板上轻揉该混合物。
2. V-T If you knead a part of someone's body, you press or squeeze it with your fingers. 揉捏
例：She felt him knead the aching muscles. 她感到他在揉捏那些疼痛的肌肉。
Concepts of purity and impurity were essential elements in Hindu religion, and they were harnessed to buttress the social pyramid.
例：The builders buttressed that wall with stone structures. 建筑工人们用石结构加固墙。
例：Try to buttress the points you make in these chapters with some details. 竭力支持在这些带有某些详细叙述的篇章中你所阐明的论点。
Such vicious circles can go on for centuries and even millennia, perpetuating an imagined hierarchy that sprang from a chance historical occurrence.
1. V-TIf someone or something perpetuates a situation, system, or belief, especially a bad one, they cause it to continue. 使继续 (尤指不好的情形、体系或信仰)
例：We must not perpetuate the religious divisions of the past. 我们绝不能使过去的宗教分裂继续下去。
例：A similar vicious circle perpetuated the racial hierarchy in modern America. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, the European conquerors imported millions of African slaves to work the mines and plantations of America.
例：In most cases the hierarchy originated as the result of a set of accidental historical circumstances and was then perpetuated and refined over many generations as different groups developed vested interests in it.
It’s only human mothers steeped in particular cultures who make a scene if their son has a fling with the boy next door.(当众)大吵大闹，当众出丑
例：Make a scene as you carve through fresh powder on a variety of runs (there are at least 65 trails for all skill levels).
例：Paulose suggests firing people on Friday afternoons, asking them to collect their things and escorting them out of the building in case they try to make a scene.
Yet she didn’t have a fit when her son, Alexander the Great, brought his lover Hephaestion home for dinner. [口语]大发雷霆
例：Don Quixote would have a fit if he could see what has become of his native Spain.
例：Microsoft might want to, but Janet Reno would have a fit.
例：Most people on the street, talk about the glen, which is what locals call Pittencrieff Park, although one woman comments wryly that Carnegie would"have a fit" if he saw the state of Dunfermline now.
The same sort of multitasking applies to our sexual organs and behaviour. Sex first evolved for procreation and courtship rituals as a way of sizing up the fitness of a potential mate.
PHRASAL VERBIf you size up a person or situation, you carefully look at the person or think about the situation, so that you can decide how to act. 估计; 品评[非正式]
例：Some U.S. manufacturers have been sizing up the UK as a possible market for their clothes.一些美国制造商一直把英国视为其服装的潜在市场。
例：We also were deposed, which gave us the chance to size up the opposing counsel.
例：First order of business is to size up the damage in order to contain it.
Women can match men as far as hatred, greed and abuse are concerned, but when push comes to shove, the theory goes, men are more willing to engage in raw physical violence.
PHRASEIf you talk about what you think will happenifpush comes to shove, you are talking about what you think will happen if a situation becomes very bad or difficult. 情况不妙时[非正式]
例：If push comes to shove, if you should lose your case in the court, what will you do? 如果情况不妙，你在法庭上输了官司，你会怎么办？
例：But I am telling you, if push comes to shove, I can't say anything.
例：When push comes to shove, operators will pay hyperbolic prices to keep a reactor humming.
例：When push comes to shove, a clear majority of teachers still support their unions.
The militarily incompetent Augustus succeeded in establishing a stable imperial regime, achieving something that eluded both Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, who were much better generals. 好生动啊感觉！
V-TIf something that you want eludes you, you fail to obtain it. 不为…所获得[no passive]
例： Sleep eluded her. 她失眠了。
汉英积累
富贵者，黄土人；贫贱者，引绳人也 when the goddess Nü Wa created humans from earth, she kneaded aristocrats from fine yellow soil, whereas commoners were formed from brown mud.
由穷致富 from rags to riches
精神病院 mental asylum
塌鼻子；高鼻子 flattened nose; upturned nose
甲骨文 oracle bones
列兵，二等兵〔级别最低的士兵〕private (the top oɽcers did not work their way up from the rank of private)
内容
历史从无正义。从古至今，社会成员之间总有阶级之分。人类需要阶级的存在，但阶级并非某个社会所认为的那样是自然而真实的，阶级只是人类意识虚构的产物罢了。
阶级形成的方式（巧合+既得利益者的巩固）
In most cases the hierarchy originated as the result of a set of accidental historical circumstances and was then perpetuated and refined over many generations as different groups developed vested interests in it.
阶级的固有性（恶性循环）靠什么维持：the fear of pollution
The fear of pollution is not a complete fabrication of priests and princes, however. It probably has its roots in biological survival mechanisms that make humans feel an instinctive revulsion towards potential disease carriers, such as sick persons and dead bodies. If you want to keep any human group isolated – women, Jews, Roma, gays, blacks – the best way to do it is convince everyone that these people are a source of pollution.
印度种姓制度就是一个例子——不同阶级相互交往不仅是对个人阶级的污染，也是对社会风气的污染。
现代美洲也有着类似的现象。作者讲述了美洲以种族为划分的阶级是如何形成和巩固的：
首先，美洲涌现了大量的非洲奴隶。为什么？
1. 非洲近，成本低。
2. 非洲已有发达的奴隶贸易。
3. 美洲土地上肆虐的疾病来源于非洲，非洲人已经对这类疾病产生了一定的抵抗力。
此时，历史巧合发挥了作用，更能适应热带生活的非洲人反而成了相对脆弱的欧洲人的附庸。
人们选择非洲人做奴隶，只是因为更加便宜方便，但是没有人愿意承认这一点。为了正当化他们的选择，用于抹黑非洲人的宗教和科学“神话”便出现了：
Theologians argued that Africans descend from Ham, son of Noah, saddled by his father with a curse that his offspring would be slaves. Biologists argued that blacks are less intelligent than whites and their moral sense less developed. Doctors alleged that blacks live in filth and spread diseases – in other words, they are a source of pollution.
尽管奴隶制逐渐被废除，但是将非洲人定位为劣等人的“神话”依然深入人心。与此同时，即使不再是奴隶，常年低人一等的贫穷生活也使得非洲人难以获得白人的工作、财富和社会地位。生于受过高等教育家庭的富裕白人小孩，要比生于贫穷肮脏的黑人社区的小孩更容易获得财富和成功。于是劣等人“神话”似乎不断应验，社会偏见因而进一步加深，黑人的成功又会受到更大的阻力。与此同时，明目张胆将黑人视为劣等人的社会法规和社会规范逐渐出现，在种种桎梏下，黑人难以证明自身的能力，这些法律规范的基础假设因此得到了证实和巩固。社会偏见、带有偏见的法律规范和原生家庭的不幸，形成了一个恶行循环，让黑人的地位迟迟难以得到提升。
性别差异
在很多古代文化中，女性只是男性的所属物，是可以被交易的财产。如：强奸的受害人不是女性本身，而是她的拥有者——某个男性。直到2006年，还有53个国家没有将婚内强奸定为犯罪。又如：古希腊的女人不算公民，没有选举权和受教育权。这说明女人天生不如男吗？男女的确有差异，比如只有子宫才能孕育后代。但是人们宣称的两性差异大多是没有科学基础的，是我们的社会强加的。同性恋问题道理也是类似的。
我们要如何分辨哪些是真的生物学差别，哪些才是社会强加的？
只要记住：天生赋予能力，文化造成封闭。天生的能力赋予了人类无数的可能性，但文化却以“不自然”为名，封闭了许多可能性，只留下一部分可能性，并称其为“自然的”。但事实上，没有什么是“不自然的”，任何可能发生的事情都是“自然的”。生物学上，并没有所谓的自然和不自然之分。自然和不自然的概念其实是出自基督教神学：与神的旨意相符的行为是“自然的”，与其相悖的行为是“不自然的”。
生物学的男性只有在遵循某种社会秩序时才会被社会认同为合格的男性，生物学的女性也只有在遵循符合女性规范的社会秩序是才会被认为是合格的女性：
当男人有什么好？
至少从农业革命开始，大多人类社会都是父权社会。在父权社会中，男人总是比女人享受更多的资源福利，社会所认同的男人的特质总是比女人的特质更受到重视和尊重。如果说人生是赛跑，男人的最高奖是金牌，而女人最多也就拿个铜牌。
为什么会有这种偏向？
但是既然这么多文化都是偏向于男人的，那么男女阶级的形成一定不是因为某种巧合，而是一种必然。这种必然是什么，至今没有定论。
最常见的一种理论认为：男人比女人强壮，于是他们垄断了食物生产，也因此获得了更强的政治影响力，女人迫于无奈必须服从男性。
但是这一理论有两大缺陷：
1. 女性不如男性强壮只是平均来说，也只是某些方面较弱。
2. 历史上，女性也被排除在许多不需要大量体力劳动的行业之外，如法官和律师。社会权力和身体强壮与否没有必然的联系。甚至很多情况下，身体强壮反而是社会权力的反义词。
另一种理论认为：男人比女人更有侵略性，更喜欢在紧要关头时用拳头说话。所以打仗基本依靠男人，战争越多、越大，男人的社会地位就越高。
但这一理论也站不住脚。指挥战争的往往不是最具侵略性的，而是拥有极高社会等级的人，可是为什么不是贵族/王族女人呢？打仗更不是有勇无谋就可以胜利的。
还有一种理论认为：在长年的生物进化中，女性和男性进化出了不同的生存和繁衍策略。最强大最聪明的男性才能抢到配偶，他们的后代也会继承他们智慧好胜的基因。必须怀胎十月的女性则需要一位丈夫的庇护才能生存，因此她只能凡事听丈夫的，她们的后代也会继承她们温驯服从的基因。那些专心争夺权力的女性则得不到繁衍，她们的基因也因此无法传给后代。
但这一理论同样站不住脚。孕妇为什么一定要依靠男人，而不是姐妹？争强好胜的男人就一定能占据社会高位？大象等动物，虽然也有需要依靠他人的女性和争强好胜的男人，却发展出了母系社会。女性构筑社会网络，抚养后代。男性在永无休止的互相争斗中丧失了与女性“平起平坐”的机会。
人类脆弱的天性使得我们特别擅长合作、交流、操纵人心。为什么拥有这些特质的女性没有成功操纵男性，反而是理应不如女人擅长合作的男人最终获得了掌控权？这个问题至今没有答案。
但是我们已经知道，在上个世纪，性别的角色发生了翻天覆地的变化。今天的许多国家给予了男女相当的权利，也开始重新审视我们固有的性别观。尽管男女不平等依然存在，但这一差距正迅速缩小。几十年前相当荒谬的女性选举权在如今被视作理所当然。
我的设想
我觉得如果人类真的都起源于非洲，那么父系社会的形成或许还是可以用巧合+巩固来解释。可能早在人类分散到各个大洲前，还与黑猩猩无异的我们就已经（因为巧合+无意识巩固）是父系社会了。即使到了后来，分散或者分裂出去甚至以后变得与世隔绝的族群也还延续着这一传统。
看到一篇有关母系社会很有意思的文章，也分享下：
真的有过母系社会阶段吗？ | 大象公会
父系社会只是人类近几千年才树立，之前几万年的氏族社会早期、中期，始终是母系社会：平均分配，共同劳动，女人居于首领位置，经济和社会上占主导和支配地位；孩子出生，只知道母亲；财产的继承，只有女性才有资格……可惜，这种美丽的说法只是个谎言罢了。本文由《沐猿而冠》部分章节编辑而成，该书近期将由大象公会推出。
摘录
Such vicious circles can go on for centuries and even millennia, perpetuating an imagined hierarchy that sprang from a chance historical occurrence. Unjust discrimination often gets worse, not better, with time. Money comes to money, and poverty to poverty. Education comes to education, and ignorance to ignorance. Those once victimised by history are likely to be victimised yet again. And those whom history has privileged are more likely to be privileged again.
Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by deɹnition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition. No culture has ever bothered to forbid men to photosynthesise, women to run faster than the speed of light, or negatively charged electrons to be attracted to each other.
Sex is child’s play; but gender is serious business. To get to be a member of the male sex is the simplest thing in the world. You just need to be born with an X and a Y chromosome. To get to be a female is equally simple. A pair of X chromosomes will do it. In contrast, becoming a man or a woman is a very complicated and demanding undertaking. Since most masculine and feminine qualities are cultural rather than biological, no society automatically crowns each male a man, or every female a woman. Nor are these titles laurels that can be rested on once they are acquired. Males must prove their masculinity constantly, throughout their lives, from cradle to grave, in an endless series of rites and performances. And a woman’s work is never done – she must continually convince herself and others that she is feminine enough.
Women are often stereotyped as better manipulators and appeasers than men, and are famed for their superior ability to see things from the perspective of others. If there’s any truth in these stereotypes, then women should have made excellent politicians and empire-builders, leaving the dirty work on the battlefields to testosterone-charged but simple-minded machos. Popular myths notwithstanding, this rarely happened in the real world. It is not at all clear why not.
