日時：2018年8月21日 （火）　13:00-14:30

場所： 北海道大学　文学研究科　E304室

タイトル： Rice theory from kindergarten to undergrad, 1964 the year GDP broke, and will modernization wipe out traditional culture?

スピーカー： Thomas Talhelm (Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 助教)

アブストラクト：
The rice theory argues that cultures that farmed rice historically are more interdependent, with tightly enmeshed social
networks. However, it is far too simple to say “rice therefore interdependence.” Even the word “rice” can mean vastly different things. In this talk, I will present a much fuller version of the theory, including why rice doesn’t have to lead to collectivism, why traditional rice is much more modern than we think, and why northern Chinese wheat areas are so much more interdependent than European wheat areas. Against this background, I ask whether modernization will wipe out these cultural differences. With evidence from China, Japan, and the rest of the world, I will argue that we’ve vastlyoverestimated the extent to which GDP makes cultures individualistic–all because of a simple statistical fluke.