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."

嘉文博译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)

参考译文

来自一种文化的人，没有权力评判来自另一种不同文化的人的行为和价值观

实际上，纵观人类历史，每一个人都需要透过他/她自己的文化模式来观照不同的文化。把一个人自己的文化背景与其真正的身份割裂开来从而对与自己的文化完全不同的文化形成绝然主观的看法，这是完全不可能的。按照所有的文化都应被视为是平等的这一说法，任何来自一种文化的人都没有权力评判来自另一种　文化之人的行为和价值观。然而，可能存在着某些基本的人权，它们允许一个人评判来自另一种不同文化的人的至少某些行为和/或价值观，这些基本的人权是不容践踏的。

或许，从远古伊始，文化帝国主义一直是人类文明的一个因素。从人类以游牧的方式浪迹于地球之日起，强大的文化就一直改变或吸收着弱小的文化。达尔文的进化论，完全可以应用于人类不同的文化，因为"适者生存"无疑可以描述早期文化的发展状况。物竞天择迫使那些代表一种文化的早期部落要么学会适应并发展起来，或者学不会适应而堕落灭亡。很可能，在早期能够使人类在其环境中最大限度地生存下来的文化传统，是那些得以保存下来的文化，这些文化不会顾及其它文化对它们有什么看法，也不顾及其它那些文化在实践着什么样的传统。一个很低的人口密度，很可能使大多数文化甚至无法彼此接触往来。

随着人类的发展进步，更有可能，那些并不意味着非生即死的文化传统开始产生。不同的区域开始依据其地方条件和环境以及它们所能使用的技术创造出不同的文化。随着人口增加，随着旅行技术的改进，文化开始相互影响。种族优越感，自己的文化价值、信念和传统优于其它的文化价值和传统之先入之见，会很自然地致使人们视其它文化为劣等文化，尽管这些文化最有可能只是不同而已。显然，仅仅不同并不意味着一种文化为劣等文化，正如不同并不意味着一种文化为优等文化一样。

确定人类行为的哪些方面可以被认为是优于其它方面的，这是一件不易之事。或许，从一个简单的问题开始不无裨益：正确与错误之间有什么不同?但是，这样一个貌似简单的问题又回到了民族优越感和文化偏见这一问题上：用谁的标准来衡量这一简单的问题呢?甚至在同一种文化内，正确与错误也决不仅仅是一个黑白分明的问题，而且，当不同文化比较时，这一问题越发复杂。 极有可能，

有些文化价值在不同社群中非常相似，从而一种文化与价值判断可适用于另一种文化。杀戮无辜的男人、女人和儿童，无论是以何种方式或出于任何原因，都是一种普遍受到谴责的罪行。在此之后，一种文化的行为，似乎逐级上升变得灰蒙蒙的，而不是一个纯粹的黑白或正误问题。

来自一种文化之人评判另一种文化的行为的权力，仍是一个争论不休的问题。有些基本的人权，似乎是所有文化所必备的，但是在许多方面情况并非如是。除非有朝一日全世界的人口实实在在成为一种文化，而且每一种文化都完完全全地同化为它种文化，否则由谁来评判这一问题，恐怕是不会得到答案的。