當老師把女學生放在實驗牀上時,白色的迷霧已經把女孩子帶入奇境的夢幻中。花色的布單扯下,一朵嬌艷的花蕾赤裸地呈現在老師的眼前,猶如遠古的阿爾塔米拉(西班牙語:Cueva de Altamira。位於西班牙北部桑坦德市以西30公里的桑蒂利亞納戴爾馬爾小鎮。洞內保存有距今至少12000年以前的,舊石器時代晚期的人類原始繪畫藝術遺跡)人簡潔線條勾勒出來的青春之花,動人心魄,而又讓人生出無限愛意。
在二戰期間,魯思·本尼迪克特受美國政府委托,試圖了解日本侵略文化的糢式,並希望找到可能的弱點,或者說服手段,解決盟軍是否應該占領日本,以及美國應該如何管理日本的問題。她通過大量的文學作品、剪報、電影和錄音等資料,運用文化人類學方法對日本進行研究,重點是分析了日本國民的性格。報告在1944年完成,在1946年整理成書《菊與刀》(The Chrysanthemum and the Sword)出版。
In anthropological studies of different cultures the distinction between those which rely heavily on shame and those that rely heavily on guilt is an important one. A society that inculcates absolute standards of morality and relies on men’s developing a conscience is a guilt culture by definition, but a man in such a society may, as in the United States, suffer in addition from shame when he accuses himself of gaucheries which are in no way sins. He may be exceedingly chagrined about not dressing appropriately for the occasion or about a slip of the tongue. In a culture where shame is a major sanction, people are chagrined about acts which we expect people to feel guilty about. This chagrin can be very intense and it cannot berelieved, as guilt can be, by confession and atonement. A man who has sinned get relief by unburdening himself. This device of confession is used in our secular therapy and by many religious groups which have otherwise little in common. We know it bring relief. Where shame is the major sanction, a man does not experience relief when he makes his fault public even to a confessor. So long as his bad behavior does not ‘get out into the world’ he need not be troubled and confession appears to him merely a way of courting trouble. Shame cultures therefore do not provide for confessions, even to the gods. They have ceremonies for good luck rather than for expiation.
True shame cultures rely on external sanctions for good behavior, not, as true guilt cultures do, on an internalized conviction of sin. Shame is a reactio nt oothe rpeople’s criticism. A man is shamed either by being openly ridiculed and rejected or by fantasying to himself that he has been made ridiculous. In either case it is a potent sanction. But it requires an audience or at least a man’s fantasy of an audience. Guilt does not. In a nation where honor means living up to one’s own picture of oneself, a man may suffer from guilt though no man knows of his misdeed and a man’s feeling of guilt may actually berelieved by confessing his sin.
The early Puritans who settled in the United States tried to base their whole morality on guilt and ali psychiatrists know what trouble contemporary Americans have with their consciences. But shame is an increasingly heavy burden in the United States and guilt is less extremely felt than in earlier generations. In the United States this is interpreted as a relaxation of morals. There is much truth in this, but that is because we do not expect shame to do the heavy work of morality. We do not harness the acute personal chagrin which accompanies shame to our fundamental system of morality.
The Japanese do. A failure to follow their explicit signposts of good behavior, a failur et obalanc eobligatio ns or to foresee contingencies is a shame (haji). Shame, they say, is the root of virtue. A man who is sensitive to it will carry out all the rules of good behavior. ‘A man who knows shame’ is sometimes translated ‘virtuous man,’ sometimes ‘man of honor.’ shame has the same place of authority in Japanese ethics that ‘a clear conscience,’ ‘being right with God,’ and the avoidance of sin have in Western ethics. Logically enough, therefore, a man will not be punished in the afterlife. The Japanese-except for priests who know the Indian sutras-are quite unacquainted with the idea of reincarnation dependent upon one’s merit in this life, and-except for some well-instructed Christian converts-they do not recognize post-death reward and punishment or a heaven and ahell.
The primacy of shame in Japanese life means, as it does in any tribe or nation where shame is deeply felt, that any man watches the judgment of the public upon his deeds. He need only fantasy what their verdict will be, but he orients himself toward the verdict of others. When everybody is playing the game by the same rules and mutually supporting each other, the Japanese can belighthearted and easy. They can play the game with fanaticism when they feel it is one which carries out the ‘mission’ of Japan. They are most vulnerable when they attempt to export their virtues into foreign lands where their own formal signposts of good behavior do not hold. They failed in their ‘good will’ mission to Greater East Asia, and the resentment many of them felt at the attitudes of Chinese and Filipinos toward them was genuine enough.