The Hundredth Monkey, 지난 학기에 들은 이야기인데 참 좋다 하다가 잊어버렸다. 그리고 오늘 우연히 옆 사람 책에서 이 이야기를 다시 만나게 되었다. 인터넷을 검색해보니 널리 알려진 이야이기도 하다. 'the hundredth monkey theory,' 'hundredth monkey effect'라는 말이 있을 정도로.. 다른 한편에서는 너무 비약이 심해 과학적이라고 할 수 없다는 주장도 있지만, 이 이야기의 정확성을 떠나 충분히 의미있는 이야기라고 나는 생각한다.
18개월된 원숭이의 첫 행동-물에 고구마를 씻어 먹는- 하나가 결국엔 '100번째 원숭이'의 생활 방식이 되고, 더 나아가 다른 섬의 원숭이들까지 변화시켰다는 이 이야기는 우리 시대가 필요로 하는 변화가 결국 어디에서 시작되는지 되돌아보게 한다. 남들 하는데로 흙 묻은 고구마를 계속 먹으며 살 것인가, 흐르는 물에 한번 씻어볼 것인가.. 결국 우리를 변화시키는 힘은 의식의 전환 - 그 하나의 시작에서 나오고, 작은 행동 하나가 세상을 바꾼다. 남과 조금 다름을 걱정하지 말기를.. 주위를 조금만 더 다른 눈으로 바라보기를.. 그리고 Just do it!!
사람들은 흔히 묻는다. "How to change the world?" 그 대답이 이 이야기 속에 있다.

by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Off the shore of Japan, scientists had been studying monkey colonies on many separate islands for over thirty years. In order to keep track of the monkeys, they would lure them out of the trees by dropping sweet potatoes on the beach. The monkeys came to enjoy this free lunch, and were in plain sight where they could be observed. One day, an eighteen-month-old female monkey named Imo started to wash her sweet potato in the sea before eating it. I imagine that it tasted better without the grit and sand or pesticides, or maybe it even was slightly salty and that was good. Imo showed her playmates and her mother how to do this, her friends showed their mothers, and gradually more and more monkeys began to wash their sweet potatoes instead of eating them grit and all. At first, only the female adults who imitated their children learned, but gradually others did also.

One day, the scientists observed all that all the monkeys on that particular island washed their sweet potatoes before eating them. Although this was significant, what was even more fascinating was that this change in monkey behavior did not take place only on this one island. Suddenly, the monkeys on all the other islands were now washing their sweet potatoes as well-despite the fact that monkey colonies on the different islands had no direct contact with each other.

위의 이야기는 아래의 이야기를 재구성한 것이라고 한다. 느낌은 좀 다른데, 저마다 장점이 있다. 언젠가 이 이야기를 좀 더 재미있게 번역해서 우리 아이들에게도 들려주어야겠다.

by Ken Keyes

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, has been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers, too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists.

Between 1953 and 1958 all of the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.

Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes - the exact number is not known.

Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes.

Let us further suppose that later that morning the hundred monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them.

The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice.

A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea - Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes!

- 대구교구 송영민 신부 블로그에서