科学家们发现了人类和其他动物的相似之处

科学家们发现了人类和其他动物的相似之处

Do you worry over a young-adult family member, just out of college or in between jobs, who has moved back home? Or a teenager who faces bullying at school?

你是否担心一个刚大学毕业或正在找工作的年轻家庭成员搬回家?或者是一个青少年在学校面临欺凌?

In Wildhood: The Epic Journey from Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers invite you to find wisdom in the ways that penguins, hyenas, whales, wolves and other animals experience adolescence.

芭芭拉·纳特森-霍洛维茨和凯瑟琳·鲍尔斯在《荒野:人类和其他动物从青春期到成年的漫长之旅》一书中邀请你从企鹅、鬣狗、鲸鱼、狼和其他动物经历青春期的方式中寻找智慧。

In their bestselling earlier book, Zoobiquity, Natterson-Horowitz, an evolutionary biologist and professor of medicine, and Bowers, a science writer and animal behaviorist, examined ways in which human health and animal health are linked.

进化生物学家、医学教授纳特森-霍洛维茨和科学作家、动物行为学家鲍尔斯在他们早期的畅销书《动物普同性》中探讨了人类健康与动物健康之间的联系。

Now in Wildhood, they team up again to look across species at adolescence, that in-between stage of life when one is neither a young child nor a full adult.

现在在《荒野》中，他们再次合作研究不同物种的青春期，也就是一个人既不年轻也不完全成年的中间阶段。

Puberty, they explain, is about physical development, whereas adolescence "combines body and behavior. It is about learning to think, act, and even feel like a mature member of a group." Because animals have been doing this for millions of years, we can take a lesson or two from them about the process.

他们解释说，青春期是关于身体发育的，而青春期“结合了身体和行为”。青春期是关于学习思考、行动，甚至感觉自己是团队中一名成熟的成员。”因为动物已经这样做了数百万年，我们可以从它们身上受到一两个关于这个过程的启发。

Take the phenomenon of "boomerang kids," those young adult humans who move back home after an initial period of relative independence. Often it's viewed critically, as if the parents are overindulging offspring who should be more self-reliant. Yet this sort of prolonged parental help is widespread in the animal world, the authors say.

以“回巢族儿童”为例，这些年轻人在初期经历了一段相对独立的阶段后搬回家。很多时候，人们对这种行为持批评态度，认为父母溺爱子女，而子女应该更独立。然而，作者说，父母的长期庇护在动物世界中很普遍。

Many birds and mammals at adolescence are allowed or encouraged to stay home instead of striking out on their own. They may babysit younger siblings or otherwise help out while avoiding the dangers of the wider world.

在青春期的许多鸟类和哺乳动物被允许或鼓励呆在家里，而不是自力更生。他们可能会照顾弟弟妹妹或以其他方式提供帮助，同时避免外面世界的危险。

Sometimes the parental help offered is pretty extreme. Red squirrel mothers in middle age cede their territories to their adult offspring, often stocking those territories with food first. Certain songbird moms escort their older offspring to other flocks and introduce them to high-status potential mates. Costs may incur to these stay-at-home youngsters too, because they don't get much experience in finding their own food or coping with predators.

有时父母提供的帮助是相当极端的。中年的红松鼠妈妈会把自己的领地割让给成年的后代，而且通常会先在这些领地储存食物。某些鸣禽妈妈把年长的后代送到其他鸟群中，并为它们介绍地位较高的潜在伴侣。这些待在家里的年轻生物可能也要付出代价，因为他们在寻找食物或对付捕食者方面没有太多经验。

Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers conclude, "Recognizing the advantages and disadvantages of extending parental care in the animal world can help humans understand how and when to continue to support their older and adult children."

纳特森-霍洛维茨和鲍尔斯总结道:“认识到在动物世界中延长父母关爱的利弊，可以帮助人类理解如何以及何时继续支持年长和成年的孩子。”

Yet it could fairly be asked, how informative is this sort of specific comparison really?

然而，有人可能会问，这种具体的比较到底能提供多少信息呢?

After all, while adolescent animals often need to negotiate complex family relationships and group dominance hierarchies, they don't face the pressures of overdue student loans and mental health crises — or sexism or racism. The culturally constructed, power-based in the human world are qualitatively different.

毕竟，虽然青春期的动物经常需要协调复杂的家庭关系和群体统治阶层，但它们不会面临逾期学生贷款和心理健康危机的压力——或者性别歧视或种族主义。这个由文化构建的、以权力为基础的人类世界中在本质上是不同的。