Особенности информативного перевода текстов специального характера

Возможны два варианта перевода: Наша книга - в противовес карикатурному изображению мусульманской культуры - свидетельствует о диалектическом характере мусульманского права, который оно сохраняет и сегодня, и который позволяет человеку решать возникающие на его пути проблемы, одновременно оставаясь верующим и живя в ногу со своим временем. И в ней говорится о том, что духовную пустоту, от которой мы страдаем сегодня, невозможно заменить ни фанатизмом, ни отказом от религии, ни ее обличением.

или Наша книга - противоположно карикатурному изображению мусульманской культуры - свидетельствует о диалектическом характере мусульманского права, который оно сохраняет и сегодня, и который позволяет человеку решать возникающие на его пути проблемы, одновременно оставаясь верующим и живя в ногу со своим временем. И в ней говорится о том, что духовную пустоту, от которой мы страдаем сегодня, невозможно заменить ни фанатизмом, ни отказом от религии, ни ее обличением.

Первый вариант перевода будет более правильным.

При переводе английского текста переводчик должен полно и точно передать мысль автора, облекая ее в форму, присущую русскому специальному тексту и отнюдь не перенося в русский текст специфических черт английского подлинника. Рассмотрев основные особенности информативного перевода, можно сделать вывод о том, что между английским и русским стилями отсутствует грамматическое, лексическое и стилистическое совпадение.

3.2 Передача безэквивалентной лексики

ЮНЕСКО (UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) - Организация Объединённых Наций по вопросам образования, науки и культуры. Организация была создана 16 ноября 1945 и её штаб-квартира располагается в Париже, во Франции. В состав организации входит 67 бюро и подразделений, расположенных в различных частях мира. Устав ЮНЕСКО был принят на Лондонской конференции в ноябре 1945 и вступил в силу 4 ноября 1946 после сдачи на хранение актов о его принятии двадцатью подписавшими его государствами. В настоящее время в организации насчитывается 192 государства-члена и 6 членов-сотрудников. 173 государства-члена располагают постоянным представительством при Организации в Париже. Основная цель ЮНЕСКО - содействие укреплению мира и безопасности путём расширения сотрудничества народов в области образования, науки и культуры в интересах обеспечения всеобщего уважения, справедливости, соблюдения законности и прав человека, а также основных свобод, провозглашённых в Уставе Организации Объединённых Наций, для всех народов, без различия расы, пола, языка или религии.

С целью осуществления своего мандата ЮНЕСКО выполняет пять основных функций:

· проводит перспективные исследования форм образования, науки, культуры и коммуникации, необходимых в завтрашнем мире;

· проводит продвижение, передачу и обмен знаниями, опираясь главным образом на научные исследования, подготовку и преподавание;

· осуществляет нормативную деятельность: подготовку и принятие международных актов и обязательных к исполнению рекомендаций;

· предоставляет услуги экспертов государствам-членам для определения их политики в области развития и разработки проектов в форме технического сотрудничества;

· осуществляет обмен специализированной информацией.

В 1972 ЮНЕСКО приняла Конвенцию об охране всемирного культурного и природного наследия, которая вступила в силу в 1975 году и к настоящему моменту ратифицирована 184-мя странами (СССР - в 1988 году).

Именно поэтому статья написана в соответствии с нормами обоих языков и согласно стандартам, принятых в тех странах, где данная организация ведет свою деятельность, в частности в Казахстане.

перевод специальный информативный текст

Таблица 1 - Переводческий анализ английского и русского вариантов текста

Текст для перевода	Вариант перевода
Old map of Guinea. 1.Can the spoken word be used as a historical source? Guinean historian Djibril Tamsir Niane argues that written records are not the only stewards of history. As Burkinabe writer, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, put it, oral traditions are living museums, giving flesh and blood to the skeleton of the past. Tete la asom ene Kakyere. (Things from the past echo in the ear). Akan Proverb.	Старинная карта Гвинеи. Может ли слово быть историческим источником? Но этот вопрос отвечает гвинейский историк Джибриль Ниане, показывая, что не только письменные архивы могут быть историческими свидетельствами. Как говорил историк из Буркина-Фасо Жозеф Ки-Зербо, устная традиция является поистине животворящей, облекая плотью и придавая окраску остову прошлого. Tete la asom ene Kakyere. (Древние предания остаются живыми). Пословица народа акан.

Комментарий:

1. При переводе данного отрывка была произведена лексико-семантическая замена, в частности, генерализация, для того, чтобы достигнуть адекватного перевода соответствующего нормам русского языка, т.к. если бы здесь было произведено синтаксическое уподобление, то перевод был бы неприемлем по нормам русского языка.

Произведена смысловая замена: английскому слову the Skeleton в переводе соответствует его смысловой эквивалент «Остров», т.к. в этом контексте при использовании словарных соответствий данной лексемы - «скелет», «каркас» - оказались бы неуместными.

Произведена смысловая замена эквивалентов на уровне всего высказывания для достижения адекватного перевода, соответствующего нормам русского языка

Таблица 2 - Переводческий анализ английского и русского вариантов текста

Текст для перевода	Вариант перевода
The spirit behind the foundation of UNESCO was to foster a consciousness of the unity of the human species, in all its diversity. No sooner had the Organization been founded, than it embarked upon compiling a new History of Humanity. No mean feat. Thirty years on, a major revision was needed, with a change in methodology and renewed efforts to overcome ideological obstacles. The latest volume came out this year. It is thus the trademark of the results of new theory.	Утвердить сознание единства человечества при всем его разнообразии - такую задачу ставила перед собой ЮНЕСКО, когда сразу после создания Организации предложила международную программу по созданию многотомной «Истории человечества». Задача была не из легких. А через 30 лет возникла необходимость пересмотреть первое издание, сменить методологический подход и, главное, - постараться преодолеть идеологические преграды. В этом году вышел последний том этого фундаментального труда.

Комментарий:

В данном отрывке произведена смысловая замена: английскому выражению... No mean feat … в переводе соответствует его смысловой эквивалент “Задача была не из легких ”. Также на уровне всего предложения произведена грамматическая трансформация - синтаксическое уподобление - которая привела к полному соответствию количества языковых единиц и порядка из расположения в оригинале и переводе, но при этом предложение, ориентированное на содержание, не утратило свой истинный смысл, а также соответствует нормам русского, что и поспособствовало достижению адекватности перевода. А также перестановка членов предложения.

Таблица 3 - Переводческий анализ английского и русского вариантов текста

Текст для перевода	Вариант перевода
Samarkand, Bukhara, Herat… cities of dreams. Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Akbar… characters who marked history. Avicenna, Khayyam, Ulugh Beg… thinkers who transformed worldviews. These names were inscribed down through the ages on a territory that corresponds not to a specific region of the ancient world but to a permanent crossroads of exchanges between peoples: Central Asia. Since antiquity, Scythians, Hsiung-nu and Khitai roamed this area, from the Caspian Sea to the Chinese border, setting the foundations for the great civilizations of Asia and Europe.	Самарканд, Бухара, Герат... - города, о которых мечтают. Чингисхан, Тамерлан,... - имена, вошедшие в историю. Авиценна, Хайям, Улугбек...-. мыслители, изменившие видение мира. Все эти имена и названия на протяжении веков связаны с обширным пространством, которое, хотя и не является четко ограниченным регионом Древнего мира, но вполне соответствует представлению о центре постоянного обмена между азиатскими народами - Центральной Азии. С древности на этом пространстве, простирающемся от Каспийского моря до границ с Китаем, кочевали скифы, азиатские гуты и другие китайские племена, здесь закладывались основы великих цивилизаций.

Комментарий:

При переводе данного предложения наблюдается синтаксическое уподобление на уровне всего предложения и, тем не менее, смысл данного высказывания не искажается и не является сложным на восприятие адресатом.

Английское имена собственные Samarkand, Bukhara, Herat были просто транскрибированы.

При переводе текстов подобной направленности были использованы такие приемы как: контекстуально-синонимические замены, синтаксические уподобления, приемы смыслового развития, замена частей речи, замена слов и словосочетаний на эквивалентные соответствия, являющихся характерными для данных типов текстов.

В результате переводческого анализа информативных текстов было выявлено, что форма текстов в большинстве случаев стереотипна. Проанализировав образцы текстов статей ЮНЕСКО, можно сделать вывод о необходимости знания переводчиком принципов Компании, внутренней и внешней политики Компании, корпоративной философии и ценностей, устойчивых словосочетаний и клише, которые, несомненно, должны учитываться при переводе.

ЗАключение

В результате исследования текстов информативного характера можно сделать вывод о том, что, возможности, средства и приёмы, используемые при информативном переводе, определяются общей целенаправленностью и жанрово-стилистической принадлежностью исходного текста. Жанровый характер информативных текстов - в отличие от текстов художественной литературы, где преобладают языковые средства с временными семасиологическими связями - определяют языковые средства с фиксированной семасиологической связью, созданные в виде терминов.

Иными словами, в лексическом составе языка газетной статьи, где, безусловно, преобладают термины и нейтральные общеупотребительные слова, относящиеся к пласту профессиональной лексики, наблюдается определенное единообразие; синтаксис же отвечает четким условиям логической композиции.

Основная задача информативного перевода состоит в предельно ясном и точном доведении до читателя исходной информации. Это достигается логическим изложением фактического материала, без эксплицитно выраженной эмоциональности, отсутствием выразительных средств, таких как метафора, метонимические транспозиции и другие стилистические элементы, широко используемые в художественных произведениях.

Основными требованиями, которым должен отвечать информативный перевод, являются:

1) точность - все положения, трактуемые в оригинале, должны быть изложены в переводе;

2) сжатость - все положения оригинала должны быть изложены, сжато и лаконично;

3) ясность - сжатость и лаконичность языка перевода не должны мешать пониманию;

4) литературность - текст перевода должен удовлетворять общепринятым нормам литературного языка, на который производится перевод.

Язык информативной английской литературы характеризуется наличием развернутых сложных предложений с инфинитивными оборотами, распространенными определениями и вводными конструкциями.

Тексты информативного характера, как деловые, так и технические, ориентированны на содержание, а не на форму и обращение, обнаруживают целый ряд грамматических особенностей. Наиболее типичным лексическим признаком специальных текстов является насыщенность текста терминами и терминологическими словосочетаниями, специальной лексикой, а также наличие лексических конструкций, устойчивых фраз, разного рода клише, сокращений, аббревиатур. В такой литературе занимают особое место тексты, ориентированные не столько на носителей определенного языка, сколько на представителей некоторой профессиональной группы с определенными экстралингвистическими знаниями.

Основную роль при решении грамматических вопросов перевода играют, с одной стороны требования смысла, и с другой - требования ПЯ. Несоответствия в грамматической системе двух языков и вытекающая из них невозможность формально точно передать значение той или иной грамматического явления следует компенсировать при помощи других грамматических средств, а иногда и лексических.

С точки зрения эквивалентности для информативного перевода характерна смысловая общность оригинала и перевода, которая включает не только сохранение цели коммуникации, указания на ситуацию и способа ее описания, но и максимально возможную близость значений соотнесенных синтаксических и лексических единиц. При таком уровне эквивалентности сохраняются сведения не только "для чего", "о чем" и "что" говорится в тексте оригинала, но отчасти и "как это говорится".

В ходе практического исследования - переводческого анализа информативных текстов - было выявлено, что форма текстов в большинстве случаев стереотипна. В европейских языках высока культура и стандартизация письменной переписки. В современном русском языке гораздо меньше устоявшихся речевых штампов, поэтому при переводе мы чаще всего прибегали к дословному изложению, в частности синтаксическому уподоблению.

Информативный перевод текстов должен, верно, передавать смысл оригинала в форме, по возможности близкой к форме оригинала. Отступления должны быть оправданы особенностями языка перевода, требованиями стиля. Перевод в целом не должен быть ни буквальным, ни вольным пересказом оригинала, хотя элементы того и другого обязательно присутствуют. Важно не допускать потери существенной информации оригинала.

Перевод научно-публицистического текста - полностью ориентирован на передачу содержания, т.е. носит информативный характер, поэтому основной функцией является сообщение, и одной из главных задач переводчика при переводе текстов информативного характера является именно сохранение информативной функции исходного текста.

Проанализировав образцы текстов статей ЮНЕСКО, можно отметить наличие определенной лексики, устойчивых словосочетаний, которые являются специфичными только для данной компании. Специфичность связана с ее корпоративной философией, внутренней и внешней политикой, ценностями компании и переводчику необходимо знать данные характерные особенности компании для достижения адекватного перевода, так как для специфической лексики существуют фиксированные варианты перевода принятые в данной компании.

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26. Чернов Г.В. Основы письменного перевода / Г.В. Чернов. - М., 1987.-189

27. Черняховская Л.А. Перевод и смысловая структура / Л.А. Черняховская.- М., 1976.-155 с.

28 Пархударов Л.С. Язык и перевод, М.: 1975, 311 с.

29 Бреус Е.В. Основы теории и практики перевода с русского языка на английский, М.: 1998, 187 с.

30 Влахов С., Флорин С. Непереводимое в переводе. М.: 1980, 260с.

31 Виноградов В.В., Стилистик. Теория поэтической речи. Поэтика. М.: 1963, 275 с.

32 Виссон Л. Синхронный перевод, М., 1998, 276 с.

33 Глушкова К.А. Вставочные конструкции в научном стиле (на материале английского и русского языков). Научно - тематический сборник, выпуск 4, ДВГУ, Владивосток, 1973, 345 с.

34 Гореликова С.Н. Природа термина и некоторые особенности терминообразования в английском языке. Вестник ОГУ. 2002, 198 с.

35 Казакова Т.А. Практические основы перевода. Спб.: 2001, 211 с.

36 Рецкер Я.И. Теория перевода и переводческая практика. М.: 1974, 157 с.

37 Рецкер Я.И. Курс перевода с английского языка на русский для 3, 4, 5 курсов переводческого факультета. М.: 1973, 186 с.

38 Сэвори Т. Искусство перевода. Лондон. 1952, 279 с.

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40 Федоров А.В. Основы общей теории перевода. М.: 1983, 197 с.

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44 Швейцер А.Д. Перевод и лингвистика. М.: 1973, 227 с.

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46 Hendry J.F. Your future in translating and interpreting.

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Приложение

Writing histories in the plural. Second UNESCO General Conference, Mexico City, November 1947

The spirit behind the foundation of UNESCO was to foster a consciousness of the unity of the human species, in all its diversity. No sooner had the Organization been founded, than it embarked upon compiling a new History of Humanity. No mean feat. Thirty years on, a major revision was needed, with a change in methodology and renewed efforts to overcome ideological obstacles. The latest volume came out this year. It is thus the trademark of the results of new theory.

The idea of a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind was put forward by UNESCO as early as 1946 and can be attributed to the Organization's first Director-General, the British scientist, Julian Huxley. Naturally, he did not envisage adding yet another history to the large number already published which, although they claimed to be universal, nevertheless remained Eurocentric. Quite the opposite. His intention was to produce a work of collective memory, highlighting the contribution made by all peoples to universal civilization. This was a daring endeavour, to say the least, but one that fitted well with the ideals of the one year-old Organization.

In 1947, the UNESCO General Conference, held in Mexico, decided to set up an International Scientific Commission to oversee publication of the History of Humanity. Teams of historians got down to work three years later, under the direction of a Brazilian, Paulo E. de Berrкdo Carneiro. The first volume appeared in 1961 and the five others at regular intervals until 1968.

However, despite the success of its wide distribution, the publication was not very well received outside the West. And rightly so. Through no fault of their own, the majority of the authors bore the imprint of colonialism, which had taken very little interest in the history of the subjugated civilizations. As a result, barely 1.5% of the publication was devoted to Africa.

Also, the links and interactions between the history of science and cultural history were not sufficiently developed in these first volumes, even though its mission had been to trace the scientific and cultural development of mankind.

Then there was the problem of methodology. Over the preceding three decades, historiography had been turning towards anthropological research rather than chronological history. These new approaches had largely been ignored.

Back to square one

“The day will come when what we have written […] will, in turn, have to be replaced”, said Paulo Carneiro in 1969, in his introduction to the first edition of the History of Humanity. “I would like to think that our successors will take this task in hand and that a revised edition of the volumes that we have written will appear as a new millennium dawns.”

That day came in 1978, when the General Conference decided that a complete revision was needed. Work started two years later, starting from scratch.

An historian's work, effectively, never ends, and history itself is a continuous flow where nothing - neither the facts nor their interpretation - is definitive.

UNESCO's objective had not changed - namely, to provide an account of universal history through the multi-faceted cultural and scientific achievements of humanity - but this new project was going to be both more detailed and more diverse. First of all, a new International Scientific Commission was designated, comprising 26 members from all over the world, chaired by the French historian, Charles Morazй.

An editorial committee of eminent specialists was drawn up for each of the seven volumes, which spanned pre-history to the 20th century. These committees were responsible for checking the contents of contributions, discussing certain aspects and ensuring homogeneity of style and approach. In parallel, working groups met to discuss given issues, whether to do with history (such as the impact of marronage on Native American society) or methodology (e.g. which criteria would be used to choose one cultural contribution over another). In any event, it was agreed that the importance accorded to a given historical period should be proportional to its contribution, not to its duration.

This arrangement seemed to be working well, until, a few months later, Charles Morazй ran into an unexpected obstacle: the difficulty, and then the impossibility, of reconciling the different conceptions of history, both within the International Commission itself, and between certain collaborators. Western historians were still following the humanist line of the Annales School, a movement founded in 1929 by French historians, Marc Bloch and Lucien Fиbvre, while the Eastern European historians had been trained in the Marxist tradition. Unable to find a solution, Charles Morazй handed in his resignation to the Director General of UNESCO. This could be catastrophic for the future of the project.

A historic opportunity

Probably because I was both a historian and a member of UNESCO's Executive Council, the Director General, Federico Mayor, asked me to take over from Charles Morazй, in 1989. Never one to refuse a challenge, I accepted, and immediately set about trying to find a compromise. It was not easy, but luck was handed to me on a plate: the Berlin Wall fell that same year and, with it, the ideological tensions. The effect was so dramatic that my Bulgarian colleague and friend, Nicolaп Todorov, suggested to his editorial committee that the space devoted to religions be increased. He even organized a meeting in Rome between Christians and Muslims, hosted by the Vatican!

In an effort to make sure matters did not get out of control, as well as to ensure that dialogue, interdisiciplinarity and knowledge sharing remained priorities, I decided, systematically, to chair all the specialist steering group meetings, whether they were in France, India, or Jordan. The thematic parts of each volume covered vast areas, from anthropology to demography and legal science, including the effects of science and technology on culture and the arts. In order to treat these subjects, the authors had to resist ideological pressures in favour of a multidisciplinary approach. They also had to demonstrate the interdependence of civilizations, whose inventiveness formed part of the cultural and scientific heritage of humanity.

Today, as I look at the seven volumes of the History of Humanity on my bookshelf, I cannot help feeling a certain pride. And I tell myself that this monumental work is a defence against an obsession with the clash of civilizations that still haunts too many minds, undermining the ideal of the founding fathers of UNESCO.

Georges-Henri Dumont, Belgian historian, Chairman of the International Scientific Commission for the History of Humanity, since 1989.

Decolonizing history

Cairo Museum (Source: Histoire gйnйrale de l'Afrique, vol.II, Editions UNESCO, 1980)

Head of statue from Taharqa (Karnak), 25th dynasty (circa 670 B.C.).

Once African countries had won their independence in the 1960s, the challenge taken up by a group of intellectuals from Africa, or of African descent, was to rid people's minds of prejudice by remedying a widespread ignorance of African history.

The Ajami, the hundreds of thousands of written archives in African languages are still neglected today.

Most racial prejudices about Africans can trace their origin back to arguments justifying the slave trade and colonization, which have perpetuated a belief that Africa is a continent without history or civilization. An example of the persistence of this belief can be seen in a statement, made as late as 1963, by Hugh Trevor-Roper, an eminent professor of modern history at Oxford University. “Nowadays,” he wrote, “students want us to teach them about the history of black Africa. Perhaps in the future there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none, or very little: there is only the history of Europe in Africa. The rest is largely darkness […] and darkness is not the subject of history”.

One can understand why intellectuals from Africa or of African descent involved in the liberation of black people have been fighting since the early 20th century to `decontaminate peoples' minds', as some put it, and why African states, a soon as they acquired independence in the 1960s, called on UNESCO to help them rise to the challenge.

When, in 1964, UNESCO decided to produce a General History of Africa, it was, above all, to remedy the widespread ignorance about the continent's history and to break free of discriminatory prejudices. The best way to do this was to give Africans the opportunity to rewrite their own history, with the necessary scientific support.

An international scientific committee of 39 specialists was therefore set up, representing different disciplines within the social and human sciences. Two-thirds of the members were African, in order to encourage an African standpoint, while nevertheless remaining open to challenges from outside specialists, with other perspectives.

Within the framework of this project, Cheik Anta Diop (Senegal), Hampatй Ba (Mali), Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso), Ali Mazrui (Kenya) and Thйophile Obenga (Republic of Congo), to cite just this era's more illustrious members, held seminal discussions with their peers from other regions of the world, which were to transform ideas about Africa and black people.

These discussions were lively, even stormy at times, especially when, for historiographic purposes, use was made of African oral traditions and the Ajami - the African language archives, transcribed using the Arabic alphabet, which are still relatively unknown (see box). The more passionate discussions were to be taken up in volume II.

A global approach

The scientific committee abandoned any ambitions of producing an exhaustive history, opting instead for more condensed overviews showing the current state of knowledge and the main contemporary research trends. It also decided to emphasise the history of ideas, civilizations, societies and institutions, as well as favouring an interdisciplinary approach that drew on all available sources. These included oral traditions and the Aуami, as well as disciplines such as linguistics, musicology and even the physical and natural sciences. The committee also chose a continent-based approach, which considers Africa as a whole and abandons the usual dichotomy between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

The eight volumes in the collection, which were published between 1980 and 1999, traverse the entire continent, which is recognized as the cradle of civilization, from the appearance of hominids over three million years ago, to the eve of the new millennium. The collection passes through ancient Egypt, the Fatimid dynasty, the Swahili civilization, the kingdoms of the Horn of Africa, the slave trade, independence, etc. Some 6500 pages in all.

The collection also departs from some preconceived ideas, like the continent's isolation. It demonstrates that the Sahara, far from being a barrier, has always been a place of exchanges and that Africa has maintained enduring contacts with Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

Long before UNESCO's `Slave Route' project launched in 1994, the General History of Africa helped to break the silence over the slave trade and its impact on the difficulties encountered in Africa ever since. It devoted an entire volume to the subject in its “Studies and Documents” supplement series.

Over 20 supplementary publications, often on controversial subjects such as sources for writing history, the populating of ancient Egypt and the decolonization of Africa, add to this monumental undertaking, which involved over 230 specialists.

As soon as its first volumes were published, the General History of Africahad a phenomenal impact in scientific and academic milieus, both on the African continent and elsewhere. The entire collection was published in Arabic, English and French - and parts of it in Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese. It is considered to have made a major contribution to our understanding of African history and historiography.

An educational tool

However, the collection has remained largely inaccessible to the general public and has not sufficiently been used in African schools, even though an abridged version was published in English, French and three African languages (Hausa, Kiswahili and Pulaar).

Very few history textbooks published in African countries have turned to the collection for source material and the teaching of African history still reflects a Eurocentric viewpoint. Worse still, there is a clear tendency for these textbooks to offer a nationalistic vision of history, which exaggerates the importance of the colonial partition of Africa.

This is why UNESCO has once again been approached to make greater use of the collection as the basis for educational material. A US$2 million project was launched in 2008, financed by Libya. “Study the past if you would know the future” is the principle behind a set of educational materials due to be published at the end of next year.

The aim is to remind us that, despite its diversity, Africa shares a common history and values, upon which the African Union should be able to construct the United States of Africa.

The series is targeted at the very young - primary and secondary school children - who will be offered teaching materials that are standardized across all of Africa, aiming to reconcile, on the one hand, themes that promote unity, such as cultural identity and pan-African citizenship, and, on the other hand, national differences. The main collection, along with the abridged version, will also be made more readily available in higher education establishments. The series will also be tailored for use by teachers, providing them with manuals, educational CD-ROMs and a Historical Atlas, bringing them up to date with advances in historical research and improving the way it is taught. There is also, of course, the general public, which will have access to a wealth of information on the UNESCO web site.

The anticipated outcome of this endeavour is a better-informed African public regarding the history of their continent and the contribution their cultures have made to the progress of mankind, thus aiding them to respond more appropriately to the novel challenges of the modern world. A new task, no less difficult than publishing the General History of Africa.

Ali Moussa Iye, Chief of the Intercultural Dialogue section, Chief of the Intercultural Dialogue Section, in charge of the Histories Projects (UNESCO)

An ear for the past

Old map of Guinea.

Can the spoken word be used as a historical source? Guinean historian Djibril Tamsir Niane argues that written records are not the only stewards of history. As Burkinabe writer, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, put it, oral traditions are living museums, giving flesh and blood to the skeleton of the past.

Tete la asom ene Kakyere.

(Things from the past echo in the ear).

Akan Proverb.

Djibril Tamsir Niane is an expert on the history of the Malian Empire. His major literary work, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (1960) was compiled from the tales told to him by Mamadou Kouyatй and other griots (traditional story-tellers). He is editor of the fourth volume of the General History of Africa: Africa from the 12th to the 16th Century. This was the period of the great empires and dynasties of Mali, Songhay, Almohades, etc, which played a crucial part in the continent's history.

Interview by Monique Couratier (UNESCO), editor for this special issue.

“Words fly, writing remains,” as we say in the West. Can you explain how the oral tradition has become a legitimate source for the history of African cultures?

This saying comes down to us from the Romans and has helped perpetuate the opinion that oral sources are not to be taken seriously. But the culture of civilizations built on oral traditions is just as rich as that found in societies which use writing. The oral tradition does not say any old thing in any old way - it is a form of the spoken word that is organized, developed and structured. It is an immense repository for knowledge acquired by the community, following well-defined conventions. This is knowledge reproduced with a rigorous methodology.

And there are specialists of the spoken word, whose role is to preserve and transmit things from the past - the griots (see box). In West Africa there are entire villages of griots, like Keyla, in Mali, with its 500 inhabitants. These are like schools of the spoken word, where children as young as seven are taught the history of their lineage, learning it by heart. This memory is then reactivated by the rhythm of songs and musical instruments like the tamani, the koni or the khalam. The griot's words are “spoken hieroglyphs”, as my friend and compatriot, Joseph Ki-Zerbo has put it.

What is the role of the griot in today's society?

In Africa today, the Western educational model is encouraging a move away from oral culture towards the written word. And, indeed, traditional schools are losing their strength in terms of transmission. Even so, the griot continues to play his role within the community, in keeping with his socio-professional caste, and he continues to preside at all ceremonies.

Can he be seen as a historian?

Thanks to the knowledge passed down from his elders, the griot possesses a corpus, which makes up the basic narrative. But, according to circumstances, he might decide to relate just one part, or a condensed version. He can also add knowledge that he has acquired by speaking to others on his travels. These deletions and additions do not alter the validity of the narrative that is passed on from one generation to the next, as they are clearly indicated in his tale. As he tells the story, the griot puts things into perspective - in other words, yes, he acts as a historian, if you accept that history is always an arrangement of the facts by a historian!

Isn't there a danger of oral traditions becoming corrupted through transcription and translation?

Naturally, stories are gathered in the griot's own language, using a tape recorder, before they are transcribed into this same indigenous language. The story is then translated into a Western language - which suffers from the same limitations as any other translation! The historian can always go back to the original recordings and hear the “dot-dot-dots” and “brackets” inserted by the griot.

Did you use oral sources when preparing the General History of Africa?

Speaking live: the words of the griots

Before he starts to tell a story, the griot situates himself in time, in order to give his words a firm foundation. The oral tradition is more than a matter of spoken history; it also deals with cosmogony, legends, and so on. To make sense of all of this, the historian has to compare and cross check sources. But this is also true for written sources.

Take the epic of Sundiata. This is the oldest African epic, tracing the formation of the great Malian empire through the journey of its founder, Sundiata Keпta. He lived in the 13th century and unified the Sahel region from Niger to Senegal. His story has been passed down to us via the oral tradition, but the historical facts are also confirmed by written records.

In order to fill in some of the missing details in the oral versions, we made comparisons with documents from the 14th century left by Ibn Battuta (born in Tangiers) and Ibn Khaldun (born in Tunis). This made it possible for us to give an exact date for the battle of Kirina, where Sundiata defeated his enemy, the sorcerer king, Soumaoro.

We also cross-checked with other oral variants of the epic, particularly from Keyla in Mali, Fudama in Guinea and Bangul in Gambia. It is interesting to note that the epic has been passed on in various languages, which makes the historian's task even more fascinating.

Africa is known for its extraordinary linguistic diversity. At least six of the 16 linguistic families documented in the world are African. Does this make it possible to talk of a continent-wide cultural identity?

Africa has always been a model of cultural diversity. Let's come back to Sundiata's Empire. It was made up of a number of ethnic groups, each with its own culture, language and traditions. This was not a Jacobin from of rule. It was model of decentralised rule, which allowed diversity to flourish. And its linguistic diversity was not at all a hindrance, if the freedom of movement enjoyed by the great traditional healers is anything to judge by, travelling from village to village, from Dakar, in Senegal, to Conakry, in Guinea.

It is worth remembering that there was freedom of movement throughout West Africa as a whole. In 1236, Sundiata declared what has become known as “The Charter of Kurukan Fuga”, a kind of state constitution, and established a document that acted rather like a passport, with regional, not national, validity.

This variety of languages, then, does not necessarily imply a parallel variety of values.

Steppes and the Silk Route

UNESCO/A. Abdygulov

Falconry in the Kirghiz steppes.

Central Asia, crossroads and meeting-place of cultures, has also known periods when it was closed off from the outside world. The History of Civilizations of Central Asia shows that despite ideological barriers, historical and cultural links between inhabitants weave a regional identity.

When a historical entity does not correspond to a geographical area

The seven volumes of the History of Civilizations of Central Asia cover a vast territory from the Caspian Sea to the Chinese border. More

Samarkand, Bukhara, Herat… cities of dreams. Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Akbar… characters who marked history. Avicenna, Khayyam, Ulugh Beg… thinkers who transformed worldviews. These names were inscribed down through the ages on a territory that corresponds not to a specific region of the ancient world but to a permanent crossroads of exchanges between peoples: Central Asia. Since antiquity, Scythians, Hsiung-nu and Khitai roamed this area, from the Caspian Sea to the Chinese border, setting the foundations for the great civilizations of Asia and Europe.

The History of Civilizations of Central Asia covers this immense expanse, which until the 16th century was essentially given over to steppe pastoralism, with agriculture only possible in a few favoured places, like oases. Accordingly it has given birth to little that has been original to human life and culture. However, its position as the heartland of the Asian continent has given it a unique position as a corridor for the movement of peoples, religions and ideas, and for cultural and artistic currents. The more favoured, settled regions to the south and east of the core region have over the past four or five millennia given birth to several religions and civilizations of the Near East, Iran, India and China. Influences from all these have been significant for the evolution of Central Asia.

A land bridge

The region of the steppes acted as a land bridge between the great civilizations of south-western, southern and eastern Asia, which intervening mountain ranges and deserts have throughout recorded history largely separated from each other. Obvious examples here include the so-called “Silk Route” running across Central Asia from East Asia to Iran, the Near East and the Greco-Byzantine worlds of the later pre-Christian and early Christian times, which not only conveyed luxury textiles from China to the Levant and ultimately to Europe but also, in the reverse direction, brought Sasanian silverware from Iran into Central Asia and as far as Siberia and what is now Russia, and Roman gold to Central Asia and north-western India..

Greco-Roman influences were likewise a major factor in the development of an art like that of Gandhara in eastern Afghanistan and north-western India. In Islamic times, other Chinese luxury goods like ceramics made the long and hazardous land journey across Central Asia to centres of consumption like Nishapur, Ray, Isfahan, Baghdad and other great cities of the caliphate and its successor states, thus supplementing sea traffic through the Indian Ocean.

In the realm of ideas, various of the great religions of the Old World spread across Central Asia to other parts of the continents, such as Zoroastrianism from Iran into Transoxania (corresponding roughly to modern Uzbekistan) and Khwarazm (between today's Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). Buddhism went forth from India to conquer China and Mongolia. Meanwhile traders from Western Asia, the Iranian Sogdian merchants, brought Nestorian Christianity and Manichaeism across Central Asia to eastern Turkistan and northern China. In Islamic times, the new faith of Muhammad was carried from the Iranian lands into the steppes and beyond, often involving a process of syncretism with existing beliefs and practices there such as those of shamanism.

Closing and opening

The History of Civilizations of Central Asia

has thus been designed to show that Central Asia deserves consideration, in its own right, as a distinct entity of human history, and also because it has functioned as a crossroads and meeting-place for the civilizations of East and West during past millennia.

Passing to our own time, it also provides the historical background for the vastly increased openness of the region during the last two decades or so after the tightly closed period of Soviet domination and Cold War rivalries. The open terrain of much of the region had in earlier times always made it accessible to outside influences and movements of peoples. But, at the turn of the 20th century, despite lengthy lines of communication and the consequent slowness of travelling, enthusiastic explorers, archaeologists and art experts from a variety of nations revealed to the world in general the remarkable cultural, literary and artistic treasures of the peoples of Central Asia.

But then ideological fanaticisms and political turmoil made Central Asia a region largely closed to the outside world for many decades. One consequence of this was that no academic body or institution, let alone a single scholar or small group of scholars, felt able to undertake the compilation of a general history of the region, from its prehistoric beginnings to its present place in world history, until UNESCO brought together a wide range of authorities in the 1980s and the present history was thus launched, mobilizing some 180 authors.

Recently we have witnessed the emergence of the four Central Asian republics which are Turkic in ethnos and speech (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and the one which is their Iranian equivalent (Tajikistan). Independent since the early 1990s, these states are now able to exploit their own mineral and other resources and to play decisive roles in world commerce and industry; on the other hand they are now discovering continuities of culture with lands on their periphery, such as the Turkish and Azerbaijan republics, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, links which were previously strongly discouraged or even rendered impossible.

It is hoped that this UNESCO History will demonstrate that what was once considered as an amorphous, little-known region of the European-Asian landmass has in fact acquired an identity over recent centuries and is now fully able to play a part in world affairs.

C. Edmund Bosworth British historian, Emeritus Professor of Arabic Studies, University of Manchester, co-director with M.C. Asimov of Volume IV of the History of Civilizations of Central Asia

History seen through societies

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana/Donato Pineider

Aztec gods, from the Florence Codex (16th century).

We shall discover in the succeeding sections of this chapter that a world first: the General History of Latin America focuses on the societies and civilizations that have inhabited the central and southern American continent, more than on the nations. Even so, the lack of historical sources on indigenous and African-Latin American peoples has posed some problems.

At the beginning of this year, UNESCO published the final volume in its General History of Latin America, bringing to a close a massive undertaking that offers a global vision of the history of an immense region, covering some 22 million square kilometres. The scale of this General History - which fills some 5600 pages - is exceptional, both in terms of its size and the number of contributing authors. For the Venezuelan historian and Chairman of the editorial committee, Germбn Carrera Damas, this reference collection is the first attempt to write the history of the societies - and not nations - of the Latin-American continent.

“This book consolidates the efforts of Latin American societies to understand themselves, on their own terms,” says Carrera Damas. And that is what makes it so original. “There have already been General Histories of Latin America. But they focus much more on the States and nationalities than on the societies. And it is precisely the latter that interest us.” While a chronological national history follows the time-line of a given country, the collection just published by UNESCO adopts a thematic approach, which is not confined by national borders. For example, the chapter on Latin American dictatorships after 1930 looks at them as a whole, without being limited to a single country or part of the continent.

One of the innovations of this collection, explains Carrera Damas, is the integration of the history of Brazil in a global vision of the continent's history, while also devoting specific chapters to it.

But he also emphasizes another peculiarity of the collection - its universal approach. “Not so long ago the history of the world was written in France, in Britain, and so on. But today we are trying to move towards a genuinely universal history.” Indeed, the nine volumes comprising this history are the result of a collaboration between 240 historians from Latin America, Europe and the USA. Carrera Damas recalls a judicious remark by a Chinese historian during the writing of UNESCO's History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Humanity. “Well, you talk about `The Renaissance'”, he said, “but by the time that Renaissance was happening in Italy, we Chinese had already had four Decadence periods and three Renaissances!”

For the Venezuelan historian, UNESCO has played a key role in the success of this marathon scientific endeavour. “No other organization could have taken on such a task, while guaranteeing the scientific freedom, the time and the human, scientific and material resources it required. The task of writing and editing this work would have been beyond the capabilities of a private enterprise and would have been extremely demanding, even for a university.”

But, paradoxically, the more positive aspects of this project - such as the multicultural composition of the editorial team and its funding by an international organization - were not without their own challenges. Several authors, including some of the most illustrious, died before completing their contributions. And the project suffered from inevitable financial ups and downs, the physical distances between authors, too few meetings between contributors and technological constraints (at the beginning, communication was uniquely by post and fax!).