How you behave in Starbucks may reveal something about whether your ancestors grew wheat or rice.
你在星巴克的行为举止可能会揭示一些关于你的祖先到底是种小麦还是水稻的秘密哦。
That’s the conclusion of a new study in China, which finds that people descended from wheat farmers—who largely rely on themselves—typically drink coffee alone, whereas descendants of rice growers—who must work with their community to build complex irrigation fields—tend to sip in groups.
这是一项中国的最新研究的结论，研究发现小麦农民的后代—他们大部分比较自给自足—一般喜欢单独喝咖啡，而水稻农民的后代—他们必须跟生产队的人合作建立灌溉复杂的农田—倾向于与人一起喝咖啡。
These differences persist, even if a person has moved to a city and their family hasn’t farmed or grown rice for generations.
就算一个人搬到了城里，他们家也好几代都不种水稻了，这种区别会一直延续。
"I find the study very persuasive," says Richard Nisbett, a sociologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who was not involved in the work.
“我举得这项研究很令人信服，”理查德.尼斯贝特说，他是位于安娜堡的密歇根大学的社会学家，并未参与这项研究。
"It certainly is plausible that the differences between cultures are carried across generations even though the practices that gave rise to the culture are now rare.”
“这确实是很有道理的，不同文化的区别会代代相传，就算最初产生这个文化的活动已经比较罕见了。”
Psychologists generally agree that—by very rough measure—Western cultures allow individuality to thrive, whereas most Asian cultures emphasize group responsibility.
心理学家们普遍认同—粗略计算—西方文化让个人主义大放异彩，而大部分的亚洲文化都强调集体责任感。
One line of thinking traces these traits back to early farming practices.
其中一种解释将这些特征追溯到了早期的农业活动中。
Wheat farmers—such as those living in China’s north—can grow their crop pretty much on their own.
小麦农民们—比如住在中国北方的人—基本上可以靠自己来种庄稼。
But it takes a village to build the irrigation systems that flood China’s southern rice paddies.
不过要造就中国南方的稻田需要整个村一起来建设灌溉系统。
And because rice farming takes about twice as much work per hectare as wheat, early rice farming communities gave rise to cooperative systems of labor.
又因为种一亩水稻花的功夫差不多是种一亩小麦的两倍，所以早期的水稻天生产催生出了劳动合作的系统。
The argument goes on to say that millennia later, these differences in behavior persist.
不过千百年后，这些行为的不同是否还延续着，这方面存在争议。
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