Lipatov Mikhail, Li Shuzhuo, Feldman Marcus W
Stanford University Department of Biology, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Dec 9;105(49):19171-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0806747105. Epub 2008 Dec 1.
In rural China, the ratio of newborn boys to newborn girls [sex ratio at birth (SRB)] has been rising for several decades, to values significantly above its biological norm. This trend has a number of alarming societal consequences, and has attracted the attention of scholars and politicians. The root of the problem lies in a 2,500-year-old culture of son preference. This culture is intricately linked with the economic reality of each couple's life, so that there are financial and psychological repercussions to parents who have no sons. To bring greater clarity and understanding to this issue, we present a quantitative framework that describes the interaction between economics and cultural transmission. We start with an explicit mechanism by which economic incentives can change cultural beliefs of a given individual, and go on to include a mechanism of cultural inheritance from generation to generation. We then show how economic conditions can affect the dynamics of cultural change in an entire society, and may lead to a decrease in the country's sex ratio at birth.
在中国农村地区，几十年来新生儿男女性别比（出生性别比）一直在上升，已远超其生物学正常范围。这一趋势引发了一系列令人担忧的社会后果，受到了学者和政治家的关注。问题的根源在于长达2500年的重男轻女文化。这种文化与每对夫妇的经济现实紧密相连，导致没有儿子的父母会面临经济和心理方面的影响。为了更清晰地理解这一问题，我们提出了一个定量框架，用以描述经济与文化传承之间的相互作用。我们首先阐述一种明确的机制，通过该机制经济激励能够改变特定个体的文化观念，接着纳入代际文化传承机制。然后我们展示经济状况如何影响整个社会文化变迁的动态过程，并可能导致该国出生性别比下降。
