GRE作文范文 Issue-24

"A person from one culture has no right to judge the actions or values of a person from a different culture."

嘉文博譯Sample Essay

Virtually every person throughout human history has been required to look at different cultures of the world through his or her own cultural paradigm. It is practically impossible to separate one's cultural upbringing from an individual's true identity to allow for a perfectly subjective outlook on a culture different from one's own. Based on the assumption that all cultures should be considered truly equal, no person from one culture should have the right to judge the actions or values of a person from a different culture. However, there may be basic human rights that should not be violated that could allow an individual to at least judge some of the actions and/or values of an individual from another culture.

Cultural imperialism has been a factor in human civilization probably since time began. Stronger cultures have either converted or assimilated weaker cultures from the time when man still roamed the earth in nomadic tribes. Darwin's theory of evolution could probably applied to the human species' various cultures, as "survival of the fittest" certainly seems to describe the development of early cultures in particular. Natural selection allowed those early tribes to either learn and grow or fail to learn and die off as a culture. In the beginning, it seems likely that the cultural traditions that allowed human beings to survive in their environments the best were probably the ones that were kept, regardless of what other cultures thought of them or what traditions those other cultures were practicing themselves. A low population density probably kept most cultures from even coming into contact with one another.

As mankind developed and became more advanced, it is also likely that the cultural traditions that did not necessarily mean the difference between survival and death began to develop. Different regions began to produce different cultures depending upon their local conditions, their environment and the technologies available to them. As populations increased and travel technologies improved, cultures began to interact. The idea of ethnocentricity, the belief that one's own cultural values, beliefs and traditions, etc. are superior to others, would naturally have led people to view other cultures as inferior, even though they most likely were merely different. Obviously just being different does not make a culture inferior just as it does not make another culture superior.

It is difficult to determine what aspects of human behavior could be considered to be superior to others. It might be helpful to start with what might seem to be a simple question: What is the difference between right and wrong? But such a seemingly simple question again comes back to the problem of ethnocentricity and cultural bias - whose standards are to be used to determine this apparently simple question? Right or wrong even within a single culture is almost never a purely black and white issue, and that issue only becomes infinitely more complex when different cultures are compared.

There are probably some cultural values that are common enough among different societies that a judgment might be made by one culture of another. The killing of innocent men, women and children by whatever means and for whatever reason would seem to be a universally deplored offense. After that, the actions of a culture seem to move up the scale towards a gray area rather than being a purely black and white, right or wrong issue. Most people would agree that torture and rape are wrong, yet both are tolerated in many cultures. Again we must ask the question, whose values do we use to judge a culture's actions and values?

The right of an individual from one culture to judge the actions of another culture is very much open to debate. Some basic human rights would seem to be required of all cultures, but in many that is not the case. Until such a day as the world's population truly becomes one culture and each culture is entirely assimilated into the other, an answer to the question of who is to judge can probably never be answered.

(670 words)

參考譯文

來自一種文化的人，沒有權(quán)力評判來自另一種不同文化的人的行為和價值觀

實際上，縱觀人類歷史，每一個人都需要透過他/她自己的文化模式來觀照不同的文化。把一個人自己的文化背景與其真正的身份割裂開來從而對與自己的文化完全不同的文化形成絕然主觀的看法，這是完全不可能的。按照所有的文化都應(yīng)被視為是平等的這一說法，任何來自一種文化的人都沒有權(quán)力評判來自另一種　文化之人的行為和價值觀。然而，可能存在著某些基本的人權(quán)，它們允許一個人評判來自另一種不同文化的人的至少某些行為和/或價值觀，這些基本的人權(quán)是不容踐踏的。

或許，從遠古伊始，文化帝國主義一直是人類文明的一個因素。從人類以游牧的方式浪跡于地球之日起，強大的文化就一直改變或吸收著弱小的文化。達爾文的進化論，完全可以應(yīng)用于人類不同的文化，因為"適者生存"無疑可以描述早期文化的發(fā)展狀況。物競天擇迫使那些代表一種文化的早期部落要么學(xué)會適應(yīng)并發(fā)展起來，或者學(xué)不會適應(yīng)而墮落滅亡。很可能，在早期能夠使人類在其環(huán)境中最大限度地生存下來的文化傳統(tǒng)，是那些得以保存下來的文化，這些文化不會顧及其它文化對它們有什么看法，也不顧及其它那些文化在實踐著什么樣的傳統(tǒng)。一個很低的人口密度，很可能使大多數(shù)文化甚至無法彼此接觸往來。

隨著人類的發(fā)展進步，更有可能，那些并不意味著非生即死的文化傳統(tǒng)開始產(chǎn)生。不同的區(qū)域開始依據(jù)其地方條件和環(huán)境以及它們所能使用的技術(shù)創(chuàng)造出不同的文化。隨著人口增加，隨著旅行技術(shù)的改進，文化開始相互影響。種族優(yōu)越感，自己的文化價值、信念和傳統(tǒng)優(yōu)于其它的文化價值和傳統(tǒng)之先入之見，會很自然地致使人們視其它文化為劣等文化，盡管這些文化最有可能只是不同而已。顯然，僅僅不同并不意味著一種文化為劣等文化，正如不同并不意味著一種文化為優(yōu)等文化一樣。

確定人類行為的哪些方面可以被認為是優(yōu)于其它方面的，這是一件不易之事。或許，從一個簡單的問題開始不無裨益：正確與錯誤之間有什么不同?但是，這樣一個貌似簡單的問題又回到了民族優(yōu)越感和文化偏見這一問題上：用誰的標準來衡量這一簡單的問題呢?甚至在同一種文化內(nèi)，正確與錯誤也決不僅僅是一個黑白分明的問題，而且，當不同文化比較時，這一問題越發(fā)復(fù)雜。 極有可能，

有些文化價值在不同社群中非常相似，從而一種文化與價值判斷可適用于另一種文化。殺戮無辜的男人、女人和兒童，無論是以何種方式或出于任何原因，都是一種普遍受到譴責(zé)的罪行。在此之后，一種文化的行為，似乎逐級上升變得灰蒙蒙的，而不是一個純粹的黑白或正誤問題。

來自一種文化之人評判另一種文化的行為的權(quán)力，仍是一個爭論不休的問題。有些基本的人權(quán)，似乎是所有文化所必備的，但是在許多方面情況并非如是。除非有朝一日全世界的人口實實在在成為一種文化，而且每一種文化都完完全全地同化為它種文化，否則由誰來評判這一問題，恐怕是不會得到答案的。