家驴驯化研究的回顾与思考

Review and Reflection on the Domestication Research of Domestic Donkey

驴作为役用家畜在古代社会具有重要价值,其驯化起源问题在国内相对关注较少。本文分别回顾国外和国内学者的相关学术成果,发现国外研究以考古发现为基础,并结合遗传学、民族学、语言学探索家驴起源的时间、地点、野生祖本、原因、过程、利用方式、扩散路线等问题;国内研究以历史学和遗传学为主,考古发现与研究较少,可以大致梳理出中国家驴的引入与畜养史,并追溯现代家驴的野生祖先。我们希望本文在全面回顾家驴起源的研究的基础上,根据国内现有成果对未来研究方向作出一些思考。

Donkeys played a significant role as working animals in early societies.The domestication of donkeys,however,has received limited attention in China.This paper reviews current achievements on this issue from both foreign and domestic scholars and found that foreign scholars utilise archaeological materials along with genetics,ethnology,and linguistics to investigate various aspects of the origins of donkey domestication,including its wild ancestor,the process of domestication,exploitation,and dispersal.In China,research,primarily grounded in historical and genetic evidence and with less emphasis on archaeological materials,has clarified the history of donkey introduction and their husbandry and identified the wild ancestors of modern domesticated donkeys.This paper presents a comprehensive review of global research on the origin of domesticated donkeys and aims to provide some reflections on future studies based on existing findings in China.