Robert Sapolsky: Are Humans Just Another Primate?
So how does how we are unique as humans have to do with translation? I think it has to do with what we bring to the task without even being aware of it. There are several examples in the talk. 1. The mapping of food disgust onto moral disgust, and the degree to which this is culturally reproduced, 2. The experience of metaphors in an embodied way-feeling them viscerally, 3. The simulation of (and thus empathy with) the feelings of others. All of these mean that the frames/ shared cognitive environment/ context which are given in all translators pose unquestionably (for me, anyway) the most intractable and difficult of all translation issues: how do we understand and interpret cultures so distinct from ours? And for everyone, the problem is double: (for consultants: source and target/translating cultures; for translators: source and intermediate culture of the languages of wider communication).
One might think that one of the things that is unique about humans is that we are rational. Think again.
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Well, Sapolsky is an atheist, so we cannot expect to agree with him on everything. But to be fair, he not only celebrates human uniqueness, but singles out a specific Christian activity as the high point of what sort of thing separates us from other animals. And I find that quite inspiring. But as I said in my introductory comments, I also find our human uniqueness frustrating at times as a translation consultant. What makes us able to communicate so well with each other also facilitates our creation of linguistic and cultural worlds which separate us from one another. I truly love the richness of linguistic and cultural diversity in the world, but it is a problem in translation.