祭司是翻做Priest還是Oracle?

原新聞在此：

紋面象徵通姦？「菜英文」丟臉到國外

菜英文》英語系教授：很嚴重錯誤




首先，adulthood竟然可以弄錯成adultery，實在太離譜，幫文建會翻譯的人應該不是英文科班出身吧？

張武昌教授提出的詞語都很適當，不過關於祭司的翻譯，我有點想法：

張教授說，"原住民祭司為族人祈福、驅邪，受到尊重，還是不要用含貶意的字，用代表神與人之間媒介的oracle，比較合適。而priest則比較適合指作基督宗教的神職人員。"

我們來看看wikipedia相關的文章：

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest

"A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively.

Priests and priestesses have been known since the earliest of times and in the simplest societies. They exist in all or some branches of Judaism, Christianity, Shintoism, Hinduism, and many other religions, as well, and are generally regarded as having good contact with the deities of the religion to which s/he subscribes, often interpreting the meaning of events, performing the rituals of the religion, and to whom other believers often will turn for advice on spiritual matters."


雖說現在Priest常常用來指天主教的神職人員，不過若是描述歷史，priest 或 priestess也有用於其他宗教上。

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle

"An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. It may also be a revealed prediction or precognition of the future, from deities, that is spoken through another object or life-form (e.g.: augury and auspice). In the ancient world many sites gained a reputation for the dispensing of oracular wisdom: they too became known as "oracles," and the oracular utterances, called khrēsmoi in Greek, were often referred to under the same name—a name derived from the Latin verb ōrāre, to speak."

若繼續讀該篇文章裡面的例子，Oracle可以是神殿，人，甚至是占卜的用具。例如最有名的Oracle當然是古希臘祀奉太陽神的Delphi神殿(Delphic Oracle)了，這裡Oracle指地方(神殿)而非人的職稱，

"The temple was changed to a center for the worship of Apollo during the classical period of Greece and priests were added to the temple organization—although the tradition regarding prophecy remained unchanged—and the apparently always-female priestess continued to provide the services of the oracle exclusively. It is from this institution that the English word, oracle, is derived."

這裡神殿是用Oracle來表示，而女祭司則叫做Priestess，我沒記錯的話，這些女祭司會坐在火山冒煙的裂縫上，傳達太陽神的旨意，所以也有扮演媒介的意思。大英百科全書也是用同樣的寫法：http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/430708/oracle

所以我個人覺得Priestess是比Oracle來的合適一些啦。不過還有兩個名詞可以考慮：

Witch doctor是巫醫：
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_doctor

"A witch doctor often refers to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary Western medicine."

不過該篇文章只有提到歐洲跟非洲的巫醫習俗，沒有亞洲。

Shaman：
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaman

"Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman. There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world and several common beliefs are shared by all forms of shamanism. Shamans are intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. They can treat illness and are capable of entering supernatural realms to provide answers for humans."

該篇文章裡有一段是這樣的：

"Shamanism is still widely practiced in the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa), where shamans are known as 'Nuru' (all women) and 'Yuta'. 'Nuru' generally administrates public or communal ceremonies while 'Yuta' focuses on the civil or private matters. Shamanism is also practiced in a few rural areas in Japan proper. It is commonly believed that the Shinto religion is the result of the transformation of a shamanistic tradition into a religion. Forms of practice vary somewhat in the several Ryukyu islands, so that there is, e.g., a distinct Miyako shamanism.

Some practices also seem to have been preserved in the Catholic religious traditions of aborigines in Taiwan."

最後一句還有參考文獻，正好是輔仁大學的一位教授寫的文章，而他使用Shaman。
http://www.erenlai.com/media/downloads/TheologicalShamanismLardenois.pdf

我比較偏向是翻成Shaman (或者是Medicine Man/Medicine Woman，這種說法常常用來描述北美原住民印第安人的Shaman)，這是描述歷史，應該不會有什麼歧視的意味吧。要再細分的話，Priest/priestess跟Oracle是跟神(deity)有關，而Shaman是跟Spirit有關，不是神；若原住民的祭司主要是跟祖靈溝通的話，Shaman是比Oracle或Priestess都來的適當。

不過這只是我自己隨便看看的想法，還是得請人類學專家來下結論！