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Bugs in the system
系统病毒
A new history of humanity puts germs at the center.
一部人类史新作将细菌放在中心位置。
Pathogenesis. By Jonathan Kennedy.
《病原理论》。乔纳森·肯尼迪著。
For the first 250,000 years after Homo sapiens evolved, they existed on Earth alongside several other species of human in Africa, Asia and Europe.
在进化出智人之后的前25万年里，智人与非洲、亚洲和欧洲的其他几个人类物种一起生活在地球上。
Around 50,000 years ago, however, H. Sapiens left Africa and migrated across the world; around the same time, all the other species began to disappear.
然而，大约5万年前，智人离开非洲，在世界各地迁徙，大约在同一时间，所有其他人类物种开始消失。
The fossil record shows that the last Neanderthals died out roughly 39,000 years ago, leaving only H. Sapiens.
化石记录显示，最后一群尼安德特人在大约3.9万年前灭绝，从此智人仅存。
Why the other humans perished may be the biggest conundrum of the early Palaeolithic age.
为什么其他人类会灭绝？这可能是旧石器时代早期最大的谜题。
The prevailing explanation is that H. Sapiens was more intelligent.
主流的解释是智人更聪明。
In his book “Sapiens”, Yuval Noah Harari, a historian, argued that the species went through a kind of “cognitive revolution” between 70,000 and 30,000 years ago, probably after a genetic mutation transformed how they thought.
历史学家尤瓦尔·诺亚·赫拉利在其著作《人类简史》中论述，智人在7万至3万年前经历了一场“认知革命”，在此之前可能是一种基因突变改变了他们的思维方式。
Since H. Sapiens was brainier than other species, these humans had better communication skills and, presumably, better fighting ability.
因为智人比其他物种更聪明，所以这些人类有更好的沟通技能，想必也有更强的战斗能力。
According to Jonathan Kennedy, the author of “Pathogenesis”, there is a better explanation for why H. Sapiens prevailed: their immune systems were superior.
根据《病原理论》的作者乔纳森·肯尼迪的观点，对于智人为何占了上风有一个更好的解释：他们的免疫系统更优越。
As their populations boomed, genetic diversity increased and, since they lived in Africa, much closer to the equator than other humans, H. Sapiens would have been exposed to a greater array of animals carrying a variety of microbes.
随着智人数量增加，遗传多样性也增加了，而且由于他们生活在非洲，比其他人类更接近赤道，所以智人会接触到更多携带各种微生物的动物。
Some of those microbes would have been pathogenic.
其中一些微生物可能是致病的。
(Indeed, the majority of bugs that infect humans are zoonotic—ie, they jump the species barrier from other animals.)
(事实上，大多数感染人类的病菌都是人畜共患的，也就是说，它们跨越了人类与其他动物之间的物种障碍。)
As H. Sapiens moved across the world, they would have been protected against the diseases carried by the other humans they met.
智人在世界各地迁徙时，他们可能没有染上他们遇到的其他人类所携带的疾病。
The converse was not true, however, meaning Neanderthals and other humans were less resistant to the diseases carried by H. Sapiens.
然而，反过来却并非如此，这意味着尼安德特人和其他人类对智人携带的疾病抵抗力更弱。
From there, Mr Kennedy goes on to rewrite much of the history of life, with microbes at the forefront.
从这里开始，肯尼迪先生改写了大部分生命史，其中微生物处于主要地位。
“It’s a bacterial world”, he writes, “and we’re just squatting here.”
“这是细菌的世界，”他写道，“而我们只是蹲在这个世界里。”
Infections have shaped fundamental elements of mammalian biology, for example.
例如，感染塑造了哺乳动物生物学中的基本要素。
When animals first evolved, they laid eggs in order to reproduce.
当动物最初进化时，它们产卵是为了繁殖。
But a few hundred million years ago, a shrew-like creature developed the ability to grow young inside her body.
但在几亿年前，一种类似鼩鼱的生物发展出了在体内孕育幼崽的能力。
Geneticists argue that this ability did not evolve naturally, but was suddenly acquired when a virus inserted its DNA into the creature’s genome.
遗传学家认为，这种能力不是自然进化而来的，而是在病毒将其DNA嵌入这个生物的基因组时突然获得的。
Without that infection, humans might be hatching from eggs today.
如果没有这次感染，如今人类可能会从蛋壳里孵化出来。
Human civilisations have been shaped by disease, too.
人类文明也是由疾病塑造的。
Multiple plagues afflicted ancient Romans and Mr Kennedy argues that the death and devastation not only led to the collapse of that empire, it also set in motion the societal changes that allowed Christianity to dominate the world.
多种瘟疫折磨着古罗马人，肯尼迪认为，死亡和破坏不仅导致了古罗马帝国崩溃，还推动了使基督教统治世界的社会变革。
Some of his most striking stories come from the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
肯尼迪讲述的最吸引人的一些故事来自西班牙对美洲的征服。
The prevailing story here is that the Europeans had better technology and weapons with which to subdue the less advanced societies in the Americas.
主流说法是欧洲人拥有更强的技术和武器，从而征服了欠发达的美洲社会。
That’s not entirely true, Mr Kennedy says.
肯尼迪表示，这不完全正确。
The introduction of infectious diseases from Europe, he writes, resulted in a 90% fall in the population in the Americas, from about 60.5m in 1500 to 6m a century later.
他写道，从欧洲传入的传染病导致美洲人口减少了90%，从1500年的约6050万下降到一个世纪后的600万。
If Europeans brought disease to those in the Americas, why didn’t American pathogens have a similar effect on the invaders?
如果欧洲人给美洲人带来了疾病，那么为什么美洲的病原体没有对入侵者产生类似的影响？
Many of the diseases Europeans had immunity to had originated in domesticated herd animals such as cows, pigs and sheep.
欧洲人能免疫的许多疾病来自驯养的畜群动物，如牛、猪和羊。
In the Americas, people had also domesticated animals—alpacas, guinea pigs and llamas—but “unlike the ancestors of Eurasian farm animals, alpacas and llamas hadn’t lived in vast herds prior to domestication, limiting the opportunities for diseases to emerge and become endemic.”
在美洲，人们也驯养了动物--羊驼、豚鼠和大羊驼--但“与欧亚农场动物的祖先不同，羊驼和大羊驼在被驯养之前并没有成群生活，这限制了疾病出现并流行的机会”。
People in the Americas would not have been exposed to as many microbes from their farmed animals.
美洲人不会像欧洲人那样从饲养的动物身上接触到这么多微生物。
There is a hint of formula about this book: as soon as a new set of characters is introduced, you know infection looms.
这本书有一个暗含的公式：一旦引入一组新角色，你就知道感染正在逼近了。
But that is a minor quibble in a compelling account of the role of bacteria and viruses in world history.
但对于这部描述了细菌和病毒在世界历史中的作用的精彩之作而言，这算是吹毛求疵了。
Mr Kennedy marshals a dizzying range of material, from the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe to the rise of the slave trade to the defeat of the British army by American revolutionaries in Yorktown in 1781.
肯尼迪汇合了一系列令人眼花缭乱的资料，从欧洲从封建主义向资本主义的过渡，到奴隶贸易的兴起，再到1781年英国军队在约克镇被美国革命者击败。
It helps that Mr Kennedy’s epidemiological writing is leavened with pop-culture references: “The Lord of the Rings”, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and Monty Python provide on-ramps for some of the complex tales Mr Kennedy tells.
肯尼迪的这部流行病学著作中点缀了流行文化方面的典故，这一点很有助益：《指环王》《2001：太空漫游》和巨蟒剧团为他讲述的一些复杂故事提供了引子。
Despite the sweeping ideas, therefore, his book is an entertaining read.
因此，尽管他的观点笼统，但这本书仍是一本有趣的读物。
“Emphasising the role that infectious diseases play doesn’t exclude the possibility that humans can have an impact on the world,” he concludes.
“强调传染病的作用并不排除人类可以对世界产生影响的可能性。”他总结道。
“It’s just that very often we don’t make history in circumstances of our own choosing, but in circumstances created by microbes.”
“只是很多时候，我们创造历史的环境并不是由我们自己选择的，而是由微生物选择的。”
