A Report On Translation Of The Man-Eating Myth(anthropology & Anthropophagy)

The source text of this translation report was an excerpt from the book The Maneating Myth---Anthropology & Anthropophagy,written by the famous American anthropologist William Arens: Professor Arens criticized eurocentrism which despised other races and proved the fiction nature of cannibalistic feasts and physical tributes in non-Bayern civilization(people of color).What he wanted to express was:there was no convincing evidence to prove that cannibalism was a constitutional human behavior.Like most scholars in western countries,Chinese scholars thought cannibals mainly existed among relatively backward nations.Those domestic scholars regarded cannibalism as a universal historical fact existed in ancient times and believed this phenomenon reflected the backwardness of ancient civilization.However,Arens held a quite different idea from this dominant view and this book was the opposition to western centralism.Although the original work had been published many times in foreign countries and Hong Kong,China,there was no Chinese translation at present,therefore,on the one hand,this Chinese translation version would encourage Chinese readers to think in a critical way and compare western studies on cannibalism with traditional Chinese man-eating myth to feel the cultural differences;on the other hand it could provide a way for the Chinese to learn foreign studies on cannibalism,provide reference for other scholars to study in this field,and also serve as a guidance for lovers of this topic.There were many cultural differences among regions and races involved in the original work,which caused such problems for the translator during the translation process as unfamiliarity with the name of some historical figures,places and books with no Chinese translation;The book was a professional study in the field of anthropology and the translator found it difficult in translating long and difficult sentences;the translator was not familiar with the historical and cultural background of the Middle East,Europe and America.Cultural translation theory could help the translator to solve these problems.Since 1980 s,there had been a "cultural turn" in translation studies.Cultural translation theorists,represented by Susan Bassnett,put forward that translation should not be limited to the description of the information in the original text,but realize cultural communication between the source language and the target language.This translation practice report,guided by the cultural translation theory,probed into the difficulties encountered in the translation process.According to the strategy of foreignization,translation methods and techniques like literal translation,transliteration,annotation,addition and omission were used to solve those problems.