海外文化:英美民俗 颅相学

【英文原文】

摘要：颅相学的理论是由德国医生加勒与他的学生斯帕津姆创建的，他们研究如何靠分析人头骨的开头来测定特定的性格与才能。颅相学一度被认为是科学，但现在人们认为它缺乏科学根据。

Phrenology is the practice of analyzing a person' s character by examining the shape of the skull. It was developed during the early 19th century by two German physicians. Fanz Joseph Gall and his student Johann Kaspar Spurzheim. Phrenology was once considered a science, but now we know the theory has no scientific basis. So it should be called a pseudoscience.

Phrenology was based on the belief that the brain is composed of many areas, each of which governs different character traits and intellectual abilities. Gall and Spurzheim believed a map could be made of the skull to show where these areas were. The strength or weakness of each trait or ability is determined by the size of the area where it is centered. They said they could tell whether a person was a musician, a poet, a businessman, a thief, or anything else, simply by feeling the bumps on the person' s head.

Phrenology became very popular in Western Europe and North America during the 19th century. Maps showing the different intellectual qualities centered in each of the brain' s areas were printed and sold in large numbers. Studies on phrenology continued to be popular until the early 20th century. Famous people who believed in phrenology included Queen Victoria of Britain, the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.

Today, scientists know the shape of the skull does not correspond to the shape of the brain, and there is no evidence that particular character traits are centered in specific areas of the brain. Different parts of the brain have different functions, but the parts interact in a more complex way than phrenologists realized. Nevertheless, phrenology did help pave the way for the scientific study of personality, and thus for modern psychology.

【中文译文】

颅相学的理论是由德国医生加勒与他的学生斯帕津姆创建的，他们研究如何靠分析人头骨的开头来测定特定的性格与才能。颅相学一度被认为是科学，但现在人们认为它缺乏科学根据。

颅相学认为，人的大脑可划分为许多区域，各个区域与不同的性格和能力相联系。加勒与斯帕津姆相信可以画出一幅颅相图来，指明各个区域的确切位置。各区域的突起或凹陷的程度决定某种性格的强弱和某种能力的大小。他们声称能够靠触摸人的头骨猜测一个人是音乐家、诗人、商人、盗贼或是其他什么人。

颅相学盛行于19世纪的欧美直至20世纪初。颅相图一度发行量很大。英国维多利亚女王、美国诗人埃德加·爱伦·坡和沃尔特·惠特曼都是颅相学的信奉者。但面代科学证明，人的头骨的形状与大脑的形状并不相符，也没有证据证明人的性格与大脑的特定区域相关。大脑的不同区域确有不同的功能，但它们之间的联系远比颅相学家想像的复杂得多。然而颅相学也并非一无是处。它对人格的研究为现代心理学奠定了基础。