青藏高原东北部牧羊业的民族学观察及其动物考古学启示

An ethnographic observation of sheep husbandry in northeast Tibetan Plateau and its zooarchaeological implications

学术界目前已经普遍认识到,牧羊业是在史前从西亚传入中国的,青藏高原东北部则被认为有可能是最早接受这些外来物种的区域。然而,青藏高原大部分地区为特殊的高海拔环境,气候条件相对恶劣。绵羊是如何传入并适应青藏高原,及早期的绵羊传入对人类的生活起到了怎样的作用等问题仍然不甚清楚。本研究通过田野调查和访谈的方式,对青藏高原东北部5个县共10户的牧羊业情况进行了民族学考查。通过这些研究,发现了青藏高原东北部多样的绵羊品系及其来源、各自的生理特点、适应的不同生态环境及相关的繁殖和蓄养方式。结合调查得到的结果和相关的动物考古学及分子生物学证据发现,早期绵羊在传入青藏高原高海拔环境的过程中,需要经历一系列充满挑战性的、对新生态环境适应的过程。因此推测:人类有意识的将绵羊与本地野生盘羊杂交以得到对高海拔环境的生态适应在这一过程中很可能起到了关键性的作用,但是具体情况仍需更多动物考古和古DNA研究。本调查所发现的羊群饲养策略对通过动物考古、稳定同位素和古DNA方法研究史前牧羊业有启示、参考和类比作用,并为今后研究史前牧羊业的跨大陆传播提出应该关注的方向。

It is now widely recognized that domestic sheep spread from Western Asia into China during prehistory.The Northeast Tibetan Plateau(NETP)was believed to be among the earliest regions in China where domestic sheep were adopted.However,vast areas of the Tibetan plateau are characterized by high altitudes and extreme harsh environments.It is still poorly understood how sheep first spread into the Tibetan plateau,and what effect they had on people's lives there.This paper presents an ethnographic study of sheep herding in the NETP.Through interviewing,observing,and recording at ten households in five counties(Hualong Hui Autonomous County,Huzhu Tu Autonomous County,Haiyan County,Qilian County and Henan Mongol Autonomous County)of Qinghai Province,we investigated the diversity of the typical sheep breeds of the NETP and their sources,their physiological and ecological adaptations,and the traditional strategies of managing and breeding them by the local communities.Combining our results with the available zooarchaeological and archaeological biomolecular evidence,we infer that it was initially challenging for the sheep to adapt to the new environments of the high-altitude Tibetan plateau,whilst crossbreeding between introduced domestic sheep and local wild Ovis ammon here might have been undertaken intentionally by humans in prehistory and a key for how sheep adapted to this environment.However,there is still a need for more zooarchaeological and ancient DNA studies to investigate this and other scenarios in detail.The ethnographic results reported in our study have relevance for researchers working on prehistoric sheep husbandry using zooarchaeological,stable isotopic,and aDNA methods,and highlight potential directions for future studies of the spread of sheep husbandry in Eurasian prehistory.