我国华南地区“壮侗-南岛语”人群的蛇崇拜辨析

Analysis on the “Snake-worshiping Theory” of Austronesian-Thai People in Southern China

蛇崇拜是新石器时期我国华南地区“壮侗-南岛语”人群的文化现象之一。目前,学界关于蛇崇拜现象的研究与讨论仍存在一定的争议。本文立足前人及时贤的研究成果,对作为“壮侗-南岛语”人群共同的民族文化特征——蛇崇拜研究进行评述,并在此基础上结合语言学材料,提出对这一文化现象的新思考。研究显示:南岛语“蛇”*SulaR与壮侗语、南方汉语方言具有明显的同源关系,这不仅证明南岛语依然存在于华南地区,也更好地弥补部分学者认为今日之华南地区上无任何南岛语言遗留的空白。

Snake worship is a cultural phenomenon among people speaking Thai-Austronesian languages in the Neolithic period in southern China. There is still some controversy in the research and discussion on the phenomenon of snake worship in academic circles at present. Based on the researches of predecessors and sages, this paper tries to sort out and summarize the reasons for the divergence of this issue in a comprehensive and systematic way, and comment on the divergence at the same time. Furthermore, linguistic evidence shows that the original Austronesian language of the snake*SulaR has an obvious homologous relationship with the Thai language and the bottom layer of southern Chinese dialects. It fills the gap left by the absence of any Austronesian language in China’s mainland today, which further proves that Austronesian language still exists in the southern part of China’s mainland.