The role of the insider translator in conservation and development: comparing multilingual (auto)ethnobotanical books from Tanzania, Thailand, and Taiwan

This article compares recent multilingual (auto)ethnobotanical books from Tanzania, Thailand, and Taiwan in terms of the role that the “insider translator” might play in linguistic, cultural, or environmental conservation or development. The books were motivated by similar concerns, but differed in the backgrounds of the authors, including translators and compilers. How did the backgrounds of the authors – as cultural outsiders or insiders – condition the form and content of the (auto)ethnobotanical books? What approach to authorship might be most effective for achieving the intended aims of the (auto)ethnobotanists? Based on textual analysis, interviews, and fieldwork, the main findings are as follows. The interlingual translation in the Tanzanian and Thai cases was unidirectional out of the local language, because the compilers, who were outsiders, were more concerned about the conservation of endangered languages, cultures, and environments. There was no division of labor between compiler and translator in the Taiwanese case, and the translation was bidirectional, because the authors were committed to the development of their language. It stands to reason that an autoethnobotanical effort, one made by cultural insiders, to conserve traditional plant knowledge or develop an ancestral language would be more effective than an ethnobotanical one; but the long-term effectiveness of any of the multilingual (auto)ethnobotanical books needs further comparative research.

本文比較坦尚尼亞、泰國與台灣近期出版的多語言民族植物學書籍，探討譯者作為局內人在語言保育與發展中所扮演的角色。三個案例的目的相似，作者─ - 包括翻譯者與編纂者 - 的背景不同。作者的背景 - 身為局外人或局內人 - 如何形塑（自我）植物學書籍的形式與內容？哪一個編譯模式最能有效達到（自我）植物學家的目的？根據文本分析、訪談與田野調查的主要研究結果如下。坦尚尼亞和泰國的案例為單向翻譯，由本地語言譯入國家語言與英語，因為外來的編纂者希望保存脆弱語言、文化或環境。在台灣的案例中，編者與譯者之間並無分工，且為雙向翻譯，因為「自我民族植物學家」有意發展其語言。按理來說，以自我植物學的方式來傳承傳統植物知識，會比純粹以民族植物學的方式更加有效；然而這種（自我）民族植物學的轉錄與翻譯如何能達到其預期目的，則需要更進一步的比較研究。