环境史的转折点

千百年来,环境史并不总是沿着同一条直线发展的,而是有许多变化并且有多个转折点存在。为了创造一个新版本的历史,环境史学家应该研究这些转折点而不是把自己局限在一个小的专业范围内。但是怎么来识别这些转折点呢?什么是决定性的点呢?在这里作者认为为了重建漫长的历史演化进程中人类与自然之间的关系,历史学家应该抛弃那些深深根植于西方社会与中国古代社会的人性化自然的传统观念。人类是自然界的一部分,他们与外部世界的联系以及与人类本性的联系是紧密相关的。通过这种研究,环境史将占据历史研究中的很大比重,而不是仅仅处于其边缘地位。在这种理念的基础上,作者认为重建环境史的转折点是有可能的。首先他提出了人类早期历史的四个转折点即渔猎活动的产生,农耕文化的起源,人工灌溉农业的开端以及游牧业的兴起。在各种情形下,新的环境管理方式总是与人性化自然的新形式相联系的。在过去的500年中,这一重建工作变得更加困难了。鉴于这个时期的历史特征,作者提出并讨论了以下的六个转折点(1)流行病,吸毒成瘾,糖与殖民化(16世纪)。(2)公有制的结束以及计划性可持续发展的产生(约1800年)。(3)自然保护的发现以及现代神经病和社会卫生学(约1900年)。(4)沙尘暴,土壤保护以及水利工程的兴起(20世纪30年代以后)。(5)世界范围的美国生活方式的繁殖(20世纪50年代以后)。(6)生态革命是否为幸福的终结(1970年以后)。

Rediscovering Human Nature(s) in Environmental History: A Modest Proposal for Constructing Turning Points

Environmental history does not follow a straight line with always the same direction over the centuries and millennia, but has times of change and even turning points. The environmental historian should search for these turning points in order to create a new vision of history and not to confine himself too much upon narrow specialist studies. But how to identify turning points and times of change ? What is the decisive point? The author argues that historians, in order to reconstruct the long history of interrelations between man and nature, should take up the traditional idea of human nature: an idea rooted in Western as well as in Chinese antiquity. Humans themselves are parts of nature; and their relation to the nature outside and to their own nature are linked with another. By this way, environmental history will become great history instead of marginal history. The author tries to demonstrate that it is possible indeed to do research with the help of this concept and to construct turning points on this basis. At first he states four turning points in early history: the rise of hunting, the rise of plowing agriculture, the rise of artificial irrigation and the rise of nomadism. In every case, a new management of environment was connected with a new kind of human nature. The task becomes more difficult during the last five hundred years. For this period of history, the author proposes and discusses the following six turning points: (1) Epidemic and addiction, sugar and colonialism (16th century). (2) The End of the Commons and the Invention of Planned Sustainability (about 1800). (3) The Invention of Nature Protection, Modern Nervousness and Social Hygiene (about 1900). (4) Dust Bowl, Soil Conservation and the Boom in Hydraulic Engineering (1930’s and after). (5) The Worldwide Proliferation of the American Way of Life (1950’s and after). (6) The Ecological Revolution: A Happy End? (1970 and after)