‘Soft’ Believers and ‘Hard’ Unbelievers in the Xhosa Cattle-Killing
‘Soft’ Believers and ‘Hard’ Unbelievers in the Xhosa Cattle-Killing
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科萨杀牛中的“软”信徒和“硬”非信徒
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发表时间：
1986
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通讯作者：
J. Peires
中科院分区：
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作者：
J. Peires
一个相当大的少数民族，也许是科萨人总数的15%，拒绝服从女先知农夸乌斯的命令，杀死他们的牛，摧毁他们的玉米。这把科萨兰分成了两派，阿玛坦巴（“软派”，或信徒）和阿玛戈戈蒂亚（“硬派”，或不信者）。个人的归属在一定程度上取决于许多因素--牛的肺病、对开普殖民地的政治态度、宗教信仰、亲属关系、年龄和性别--但对这些因素中的每一个的系统分析反过来又表明，它们中没有一个足够重要，不足以构成任何一方的基础。理解这一划分的关键在于分析科萨土著术语“软”和“硬”。在科萨语中，“柔软”指的是个人对集体共同意志的服从，而“坚硬”指的是个人追求自己目的的决心，即使是以集体为代价。翻译成社会术语，“软”信徒是那些仍然致力于下降的前殖民社会的互助伦理，而“硬”不信者是那些试图抓住殖民地存在提供的新机会，以增加他们的财富和社会地位的人。史密斯·马拉酋长（Chief Smith Mhala）很好地表达了社会责任和个人责任之间的冲突，他是一个信主的父亲的不信主的儿子，他说：“他们说我在杀我的父亲--所以我会在杀我的牛之前杀了他。”当然，阿玛坦巴和阿玛戈戈提亚之间的分歧比信仰和不信仰之间的分歧要深得多，科萨人在赋予这些名字时，似乎已经认识到了这一事实。
A substantial minority, perhaps 15 per cent of all Xhosa, refused to obey the prophetess Nongqawuse's orders to kill their cattle and destory their cornl. This divided Xhosaland into two parties, the amathamba (‘soft’ ones, or believers) and the amagogotya (‘hard’ ones, or unbelievers). The affiliation of individuals was partly determined by a number of factors – lungsickness in cattle, political attitude towards the Cape Colony, religious beliefs, kinship, age and gender – but a systematic analysis of each of these factors in turn suggests that none of them was sufficiently important to constitute the basis of either party. The key to understanding the division lies in an analysis of the indigenous Xhosa terms ‘soft’ and ‘hard’. ‘Softness’ in Xhosa denotes the submissiveness of the individual to the common will of the community, whereas ‘hardness’ denotes the determination of the individual to pursue his own ends, even at communal expense. Translated into social terms, the ‘soft’ believers were those who remained committed to the mutual aid ethic of the declining precolonial society, whereas the ‘hard’ unbelievers were those who sought to seize advantage of the new opportunities offered by the colonial presence to increase their wealth and social prominence. The conflict between the social and personal imperatives was well expressed by Chief Smith Mhala, the unbelieving son of a believing father, when he said, ‘They say I am killing my father – so I would kill him before I would kill my cattle.’ Certainly, the division between amathamba and amagogotya ran much deeper than the division between belief and unbelief, and the Xhosa, in conferring these names, seem to have recognized the fact.