水稻和小麥是如何分裂世界的 中西方差異源於農業

Scientists have long wondered why the U.S. and Europe are so culturally different to China and other countries in Eastern Asia.

讓科學家一直以來都疑惑不解的是爲什麼歐美與中國以及東亞國家在文化上如此不同。

Now one study claims the answer lies in anunexpected area: the different farming methods used by people living in theEast and West.

一項研究所得出的答案令人出乎意料：東西方不同的農耕方式導致了不同的文化。

While Westerners are known for theirindividualism and analytical thinking, eastern culture tends to beinterdependent and holistic, the study claims.

西方人以個人主義和分析思維著名，而東方文化傾向於互相依賴和整體，這是一項研究多得出的結果。

Theories explaining the differences have included wealth and education fuellingindividualism in the West, and high rates of infectious disease in the Eastcausing people to be wary of outsiders.

有些理論認爲東西方之所以存在差異的原因在於西方的財富和教育助長了個人主義，而東方傳染疾病的高發導致人們提防外來者。

But the real reason may simply be the waypeople at both ends of the world cultivate rice and wheat, say the scientists.

但是科學家說真正的原因可能僅在於東西方在種植水稻和小麥上存在的差異。

Paddy rice cannot be grown without ample supplies of water, forcing neighboursto work together to irrigate their crops.

水稻的生長需要足夠的水資源，所以鄰里之間需要相互合作來灌溉農作物。

It is also highly labour-intensive,requiring about twice the number of hours from planting to harvest as doeswheat.

而且是勞動密集型的，從種植到收穫，水稻所花的時間大約是小麥所需時間的兩倍。

Wheat farmers, in contrast, can rely on the rain and operate much moreindependently.

形成鮮明對比的是，種植小麥的農民可以依靠雨水來灌溉，而且在操作上更具獨立性。

To test their theory, the scientistsassessed known measures of individualism and collectivism in 1,000 people fromdifferent regions of Chinawhere rice and wheat are grown.

爲了驗證自己的理論，科學家們評估了中國各個水稻和小麥種植區的1000名中國人的個人主義和集體主義傾向。

The results, published in the journalScience, showed distinct psychological differences that mirrored those betweenthe East and West.

結果發佈在了《科學》雜誌上，顯現出了獨特的心理差異，正好反映了東、西方的區別。

‘It’s easy to think of China as a single culture,’ said lead researcherThomas Talhelm, from the University of Virginia.

“我們很容易就認爲中國是個單一文化，”來自弗吉尼亞大學的領頭研究員Thomas Talhelm說。

‘But we found that China has very distinct northern and southernpsychological cultures and that southern China’shistory of rice farming can explain why people in southern China are moreinterdependent than people in the wheat-growing north.

“但是我們發現中國南北的心理文化是不同的，中國南方的水稻種植歷史可以解釋爲什麼中國南方人比種植小麥的北方人更加互相依賴。”

‘The data suggests that legacies of farmingare continuing to affect people in the modern world.’

“這些數據表明農耕文化依然對現代人產生影響。”