Culture
文化板块
Book review: Animal creativity
书评：动物的创造力
Primal instincts
原始本能
The Creative Lives of Animals. By Carol Gigliotti.
《动物的创造性生活》卡罗尔·吉利奥蒂著
In 1960 Jane Goodall, a British primatologist, observed chimpanzees in Gombe National Park in Tanzania.
1960年，英国灵长类动物学家珍妮·古道尔在坦桑尼亚贡贝国家公园观察了黑猩猩。
At that point, it was thought only humans had the capacity to create and use tools, but the chimpanzees were using slim blades of grass to fish termites from their mounds.
当时，人们认为只有人类会创造和使用工具，但那里的黑猩猩已经会用细长的草叶从蚁丘中捕捞白蚁了。
Louis Leakey, a palaeontologist and Ms Goodall’s mentor, mused: “Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as human.”
担任古道尔导师的古生物学家路易斯·利基若有所思地说：“现在我们必须重新定义工具，重新定义人类，否则就要承认黑猩猩是人类。”
Since then the distinction between animals and humans has become increasingly nuanced.
从那时起，动物和人类之间的区别变得越来越微妙。
In addition to toolmaking, chimpanzees—and many other animals besides—display emotion and self-awareness.
除了制造工具，黑猩猩-以及许多其他动物-还会表现出情感和自我意识。
Studies show that elephants grieve, rats have empathy and pigs form strong friendships.
研究表明，大象会悲伤，老鼠有同理心，猪会建立牢固的友谊。
In “The Creative Life of Animals” Carol Gigliotti, a professor emerita at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, has compiled research that examines such behaviour through the lens of creativity.
温哥华艾米丽卡尔艺术与设计大学的荣誉退休教授卡罗尔·吉利奥蒂从创造力的角度研究了上述这种行为，并在《动物的创造性生活》中汇编了其研究成果。
This requires a more inclusive, and generous, definition of creativity, for it is not a trait obviously exhibited by a prairie dog or caddis fly.
这就需要对创造力有一个更包容广阔的定义，毕竟这可不是草原土拨鼠或石蛾能够明显表现出的特征。
Creativity, Ms Gigliotti contends, is not the exclusive domain of Jane Austen or Leonardo da Vinci.
吉利奥蒂认为，创造力并非简·奥斯汀或莱昂纳多·达·芬奇的专利。
Nor is she referring to Pigcasso, the artistic pig rescued from an industrial pork facility outside Cape Town whose paintings have sold for thousands of dollars.
她也不是在谈猪卡索，猪卡索是从开普敦郊外的一家工业猪肉厂救出的艺术猪，其画作已卖了数千美元。
Instead, Ms Gigliotti suggests discarding humankind’s “master of the universe” perspective to consider creativity from the animal’s point of view.
相反，吉利奥蒂建议摒弃人类的“造物主”观点，从动物的角度探讨创造力。
“If animals in their own cultures can solve problems or create products of value to them, it seems accurate to consider these as creative,” she writes.
她写道：“如果动物在它们自己的文化中能够解决问题或创造对它们有价值的产品，那么将这些视为创造性似乎并没有错。”
Beaver lodges and dams are a case in point: there is no single template for their construction.
海狸会搭小屋和水坝就是一个很好的例子：它们没有单一的建造模板。
Each river or lake has its unique features and beavers create a custom-made structure to adapt to the given habitat—so, in the author’s intriguing framework, dams deserve to be considered a creative enterprise.
任一河流或湖泊都有其独特的特征，海狸会根据特定的栖息地建造不同的结构-因此，按照作者耐人寻味的准则来看，大坝值得被视为一项创造性的事业。
In the less practical, more aesthetic realm, consider Julie’s earring.
至于不那么实用，但更具美感的创造力领域，不妨以朱莉的耳环为例。
Julie, a chimpanzee studied in the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia, stuck a piece of long grass in her ear, adjusted and wore it.
朱莉是一只在赞比亚亚奇方希野生动物保护区接受研究的黑猩猩，它在耳朵里塞了一根长草，调整好后一直戴着。
The behaviour (a fashion trend, perhaps?) was soon sported by eight of the 12 members of the group.
很快，与朱莉同属一个小组的12只黑猩猩中，有8只开始模仿起了这种行为(也许是一种时尚趋势？)。
Ms Gigliotti says it would be an error to assume that animal creativity has to match the human version, though some examples turn out to be inarguably appealing to the human eye.
吉利奥蒂称，“动物的创造力必定与人类的创造力完全相同”是种错误的假设，尽管人们看到一些例子后很容易这么想。
Take the elaborate creation of a bowerbird.
以造园鸟的精美作品为例。
Its bower—two parallel rows of slender branches that arc towards each other above a platform lined with bits of glass, shells, leaves, flowers and feathers—is a beautiful ruse by the male to attract a female for mating.
它是这样建造亭子的：在一块平面上用两排平行的细长树枝搭成拱形，平面上还会排列着些玻璃、贝壳、树叶、花朵和羽毛，这是雄性吸引雌性交配的美丽诡计。
Though ostensibly a book about creativity, the author frequently veers off to discuss animal emotion (crayfish have feelings too; they can exhibit signs of anxiety) and intelligence (“the pigeon should be the poster child par excellence for intelligence”).
虽然《动物的创造性生活》表面上是一本关于创造力的书，但作者经常偏离主题，讨论动物的情感(小龙虾也有感情；它们也会表现出焦虑)和智力(“鸽子应该是智力的典范”)。
She argues that animal personality is not limited to primates, your faithful mutt or stand-offish cat.
她认为，并非只有灵长类动物、忠诚的宠物狗或冷漠的猫有个性。
There are hundreds of thousands of studies on animals’ character and they include ants, fish and mice.
关于动物性格的研究有数十万项，蚂蚁、鱼和老鼠也是研究对象。
Anthropomorphism—the ascribing of human feelings to animals—is not the scientific sin it once was.
认为动物具有人类情感的拟人论在科学领域已不再是种罪过。
Ms Goodall has said she was “quite unpleasantly” disparaged for doing just that.
古道尔称，她曾经正是因为这样做而受到了“非常令人不快”的诋毁。
Today, she has pointed out with a sense of vindication, you can get a PhD in animal personality.
而今天，她能带着一种正义感告诉人们，读动物个性专业也能当博士。
The book makes its strongest case when advocating a revision of how to think about, and act towards, animals.
《动物的创造性生活》在倡导人们改变看待和对待动物的方式上提出了最有力的论据。
Ms Gigliotti points out that humans are only one of millions of species on Earth.
吉利奥蒂指出，人类只是地球上数百万物种中的一种而已。
She suggests a retreat from anthropocentrism in favour of recognition that animals are individuals with complicated, powerful, creative lives of their own.
她建议人们放弃人类中心主义，承认动物是拥有复杂、强大和创造性生活的个体。
来源：经济学人
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