英文摘要 |
This paper explores the origins of specialized nomadic pastoralism in the West Liao-river Valley and the concomitant emergence of ethnic boundaries between the Chinese and the ''northern barbarians'' in this area. Archaeological recoveries of the last few decades have demonstrated that from the late Neolithic to the Shang period the people of the West Liao-river Valley were basically farmers who also raised pigs and dogs. In the last stage of Lower Hsia-chia-tien Culture, while the climate became drier and cooler, people adapted to this new environment by reducing farming, and increasing raiding. This finally was followed by period characterized by drastic reduction of human activities in this area. After the period of 'interruption', this area was re-occupied by the people of Upper Hsia-chia-tien Culture who, compared with the people of the Upper culture, depended less on agriculture and more on herding domesticated herbivores. This adaptive strategy caused incrasing need of wider subsistence niche for every human unit, and caused more fierce competition for resources, and further militarization and mobilization among the people. The more the northern people became pastoralized, militarized, and mobilized, the more they became ''barbarous'' in the eyes of the sedentary people in the south. It is in this context that the hostile exonym Jung-Ti, as opposed to the autonym Huahsia (ancient Chinese) emerged in historical records. The Huahsia now became a powerful human group for protecting or grabbing living resources in this area. In response to this change the people of the West Liao-river Valley became full nomads. Consequently, the development from the nomadic state Tunghu to the more segmentary and egalitarian Wu-huan and Hsian-pei tribal confederacies marked the finally stage toward specialized nomadism in this area. |