从黄河流域到青藏高原——新石器时代汉藏语系人群早期迁徙的考古学证据

Archaeological evidence for initial migration of Neolithic Proto Sino-Tibetan speakers from Yellow River valley to Tibetan Plateau

汉藏语系是世界第二大语系。最近,通过语言学与遗传学研究,汉藏语系的起源已被溯至距今8000年前后生活在中国黄河流域的新石器时代粟作农耕人群。研究还发现,汉藏语系的最初分化发生在距今6000—5000年间,与仰韶文化的西向及西南向扩张大体同时。但截至目前,相关考古学研究还很不充分,我们对这些原始汉藏语系移民的生活方式尚缺乏了解。本文应用多学科的研究方法,综合分析甘肃、四川地区三处遗址陶器表面的微体化石遗存,再结合区域考古背景及近现代嘉绒藏族的民族志记录,初步探讨了与仰韶人群早期西南向迁徙有关的物质文化与仪式活动。最早的仰韶移民可能在川西北高原与原土著狩猎-采集人群相融合,并采用广谱的生计策略,既经营粟作农业,也利用当地的野生动植物资源。与此同时,仰韶移民似乎保持了此前在黄河流域发源地建立的重要仪式传统。他们用红曲霉菌和稻米制曲酿酒,而后可能在伴有仪式性舞蹈表演的公共宴饮活动中饮用。对于原始汉藏语系移民来说,这种仪式活动可能在维护与强化文化身份认同、社会价值,以及与故乡的联结中发挥着核心作用,且至今仍在中国西南地区的锅庄-咂酒仪式中有所保留。

Sino-Tibetan is the second largest language family in the world. Recent linguistic and genetic studies have traced its origin to Neolithic millet farmers in the Yellow River region of China around 8,000 y ago and also suggested that initial divergence among branches of Sino-Tibetan coincided with expansion of the Neolithic Yangshao culture to the west and southwest during the sixth millennium BP. However, archaeological investigations to date have been insuffcient to understand the lifeways of these migrant Proto Sino-Tibetan speakers. Here, we present the results of the interdisciplinary research on the material culture and ritual activities related to the initial southwestward migration of Yangshao populations, based on evidence from microfossil remains on ceramics at three sites in Gansu and Sichuan, regional archaeological contexts, and ethnographic accounts of modern Gyalrong Tibetans. The first Yangshao migrants may have integrated with indigenous huntergatherers in the NW Sichuan highlands, and adopted broad-spectrum subsistence strategies, consisting of both millet farming and foraging for local wild resources. Meanwhile, the migrants appear to have retained important ritual traditions previously established in their Yellow River homelands. They prepared qu starter with Monascus mold and rice for brewing alcoholic beverages, which may have been consumed in communal drinking festivals associated with the performance of ritual dancing. Such ritual activities, which to some extent have survived in the skorbro-zajiu ceremonies in SW China, may have then played a central role in maintaining and reinforcing cultural identities, social values, and connections with the homelands of the Proto Sino-Tibetan migrants.