禮物與筵席的兩種邏輯：中國與北美西北海岸之淵源關係

Abstract

本篇論文討論禮物與筵席的兩種邏輯，並從現今中國人種誌的例子與古代中國與北美西北海岸文化中追溯其淵源關係。禮物的邏輯之一是牟斯 (Marcel Mauss) 所討論的互惠性，其二是由巴岱爾 (George Bataille) 所研究的非互惠性：過度慷慨的贈予與儀式上的花費。這兩種邏輯都可在中國古代的經典作品與當代文化的實踐中見到。北美西北海岸的原住民文化啟發了牟氏與巴氏的禮物理論，讓他們能夠針對資本主義現代性提出不同的批判並對下列議題進行討論：功利主義、社會凝聚與整合力之缺乏，以及永無止盡的累積和生產之無法持續性。由於中國現代化的經驗正是建基於牟氏與巴氏所批判的西方理論上，而中國在論述與實踐中常常不自覺地吸收了這些西方理論，因此，禮物理論可以成為中國現代性所產生之一些弊病的解藥。北美西北海岸的原住民文化與中國古老文化之間有許多類似的誇富宴文化，而亞細亞古代大陸的文化元素跨越白令海峽延展到北美西北海岸的可能性可以成立，這個事實讓本論文所欲探討的問題更顯重要。因為我們的探討顯示被牟氏與巴氏所發現與現代性有重要關聯的禮物邏輯也在中國的過去中顯現，而古代中國甚至還可能是此邏輯的原生之地之一。不過中國對現代性的渴望使她盲目地躍進並刻意拒絕自己的遠古，結果這兩種寶貴的禮物邏輯也遭到丟棄，而這些邏輯事實上可以協助今日的中國處理在面對現代性時所遭遇的尖銳問題。（王蕆真譯）

This Chapter discusses two logics of the gift and banquet and traces their genealogies from ethnographic examples in China today back to ancient China and Northwest Coastal cultures of America. One logic of the gift is reciprocity as examined by Marcel Mauss, while the second logic is the non-reciprocity of excessive generosity and ritual expenditures expounded by Georges Bataille. Both logics can be found in the classical texts of ancient China as well as in contemporary cultural practices. Northwest Coastal native cultures inspired Mauss and Bataille’s theories of the gift, enabled them to mount different critiques of capitalist modernity, and to address such problems as utilitarianism, the lack of social cohesion and integration, and the unsustainability of endless accumulation and productivism. Since the experiences of Chinese modernity are predicated on the very Western theories that Mauss and Bataille were critiquing, and these theories have been absorbed into Chinese discourse and practice, often unconsciously, theories of the gift may serve as an antidote to some of the ills of Chinese modernity. The fact that many similarities between the potlatch cultures of native Northwestern Coast cultures and those of ancient China can be found, and the possibilities for the migration of cultural elements from ancient Asiatic Mainland across the Bering Sea into the American Northwest Coast can be established, makes this endeavor all the more important. For it shows that what Mauss and Bataille discovered as valuable logics of the gift that have a powerful relevance for modernity, can also be found in China’s own past, one of the places where they may have originated. In China’s eager and blind rush into modernity and its willful rejection of its past, it discarded these two valuable logics of the gift that could help it address the trenchant problems of modernity encountered today.