现代民族学研究的对象和功能

现代民族学研究的对象和功能

任何一门学科都有其特定的研究对象，也会产生与其学科发展相适应的社会功能，只有正确地了解和认识学科研究的对象和功能，才能准确地概括一个学科发展的特点，并把握学科发展的趋势。民族学作为一门新兴学科，从其形成至今仅有一百五十余年的历史。有关传统民族学研究的对象、范围和功能，在国内外民族学界曾作过广泛的讨论，形成了一些具有重要学术价值的观点。而对于现代民族学研究的对象和功能，学者们也进行过相关的探索，并提出了不少富有建设意义的见解。本章则在前人研究的基础上对这一问题展开进一步的探讨，以便为人们正确认识现代民族学的总体特点提供一些新的认识视角。

Chapter 1 Research Fields and Functions of Modern Ethnology Any discipline has its own specific research objects along with social functions in line with its development. Accurate knowledge and awareness of disciplinary research objects and functions contributes to accurate summaries of a discipline development characteristics as well as a firm grasp of its development trend. Ethnology is a newly-developed discipline with 150-odd year history. Extensive discussions had been widely conducted by the domestic and international ethnological scholars on traditional ethnology in terms of research objects, scopes and functions, which gives birth to of a number of major viewpoints of academic value. A limited number of relevant discussions had also been conducted on modern ethnology in terms of research objects and functions, which presents a number of constructive viewpoints. In this chapter, this subject is further discussed on the basis of the previous studies with the view to providing the new prospective of understanding the general characteristics of Modern Ethnology.

第一节现代民族学研究的对象

现代民族学研究的对象是民族和民族问题以及民族传统文化与现代化的关系，这在绪论中已进行了初步的阐述，现进行更深人的探讨。

Ⅰ. Research Objects of Modern Ethnology

Modern Ethnological Research involves ethnic groups, ethnic problems and the relationship between traditional culture and modernization, which had already been preliminarily elaborated in the introduction. Now a further discussion is to be conducted on it.

一、民族学研究的对象是民族

民族学研究的对象到底是什么?一直是学术界争论不休的问题，以至国际上一些颇有名气的学者还要以此为专题写出专门性的学术著作加以探讨。

1. Ethnic Groups: Research Objects of Modern Ethnology

What on earth does Modern Ethnological Research involve？This has been a vexed

issue in academia, which is further discussed by some well-established scholars who write specialized academic works on it.

前苏联民族学界对民族学研究的对象进行了长时间的讨论，其中著名民族学家勃罗姆列伊认为:“民族学是一门以研究世界民族为对象的学科。然而，这个定义不是一下子就确定下来的。过去，有的学者认为，民族学研究的对象是人，有的认为是文化，有的认为是社会。虽然也有一种意见认为，民族学研究的对象是民族，但实际上指的是那些没有文字的民族，那些尚处在社会经济发展早期阶段的民族。这种见解之所以广为流传，在很大程度上是因为民族学作为一门学科是在欧洲殖民主义极盛时代形成的。当时主要的目标就是研究欧洲以外发展落后地区的民族，他们将民族学与历史学对立起来，认为历史学是根据文字史料研究…历史‟民族的学科，而民族学是研究…非历史‟民族的学科。不过，这种见解已经过时，不值一提了。将民族区分为…历史民族‟和…非历史民族‟早已被证明是毫无根据的。现在，越来越多的学者认为:民族学研究的对象应该是一切民族，既包括非常落后的民族，又包括高度发达的民族;既包括人数少的民族，又包括人数多的民族; 既包括历史上消亡了的民族，又包括当今世界上生存着的民族”①。这一观点为前苏联民族学研究课题的重点转移到现实问题和理论问题莫定了基础。

A long-term discussion had been conducted on research objects of Ethnology in t he former Soviet Union‟s ethnological circle, of which Julian Bromley, a well-known ethnologists said, “ Ethnology is a discipline which studies world nations. However, this definition is not established all at once. Scholars holds different ideas about research objects of Ethnology, which are human, culture or society. There is an opinion that Ethnology studies ethnic groups without their own written languages, which are still in the early stages of socio-economic development. This is a widespread idea, which, to a large extent, was developed when Ethnology was a discipline during European colonial heyday era. The key research objective was at ethnic groups in the less-developed regions except Europe. Posing Ethnology in contradiction with History, they hold that History is a discipline that studies …historical‟ nationalities, while Ethnology researches into …non-historical‟ nationalities, which has been outdated and even barely worth consideration. It has been proved groundless to classify n ations into …historical‟nationalities and …non-historical‟nationalities. Now, more and more scholars believe that Ethnology should study all nations, whether less-developed or well-developed, majority or minority, and vanished or survival in the world.” ①This concept laid a solid foundation for the transformation of l ethnological research subject into practical and theoretical issues.

关于民族学研究的对象问题，中国民族学界早在20世纪50年代就开始讨论了，但由于种种客观原因，那时的讨论不太深人。20世纪80年代以后，我国民族学研究进人了新的黄金时期，空前活跃和繁荣，对民族学研究的对象进行了较深人的讨论。首届中国民族学学术讨论会于1980年10月20日- 26日在贵阳举行，与会多数代表比较一致地认为:“民族学是一门以民族为研究对象的独立的社会科学，它研究和民族的发生、发展和消亡的规律，研究处于不同发展阶段