Past Human Migrations in East Asia: Matching Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics

✍ Scribed by Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, Roger Blench, Malcolm D. Ross, Ilia Peiros, Marie Lin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 505
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The study of the prehistory of East Asia is developing very rapidly. In uncovering the story of the flows of human migration that constituted the peopling of East Asia there exists widespread debate about the nature of evidence and the tools for correlating results from different disciplines.

Drawing upon the latest evidence in genetics, linguistics and archaeology, this exciting new book examines the history of the peopling of East Asia, and investigates the ways in which we can detect migration, and its different markers in these fields of inquiry. Results from different academic disciplines are compared and reinterpreted in the light of evidence from others to attempt to try and generate consensus on methodology. Taking a broad geographical focus, the book also draws attention to the roles of minority peoples – hitherto underplayed in accounts of the region’s prehistory – such as the Austronesian, Tai-Kadai and Altaic speakers, whose contribution to the regional culture is now becoming accepted.

Past Human Migrations in East Asia presents a full picture of the latest research on the peopling of East Asia, and will be of interest to scholars of all disciplines working on the reconstruction of the peopling of East and North East Asia.

✦ Table of Contents

Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Plates......Page 9
Figures......Page 10
Maps......Page 13
Tables......Page 14
Contributors......Page 16
Obituaries......Page 25
Preface......Page 29
Acknowledgements......Page 31
Abbreviations......Page 32
Introduction......Page 34
Methodological issues: Linking genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence......Page 36
Part I: Archaeology and prehistory......Page 54
1 Austronesian cultural origins: Out of Taiwan, via the Batanes Islands, and onwards to Western Polynesia......Page 56
2 Evidence for a late onset of agriculture in the Lower Yangtze region and challenges for an archaeobotany of rice......Page 73
3 Livestock in ancient China: An archaeozoological perspective......Page 117
4 Stratification in the peopling of China: How far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology?......Page 138
5 The expansion of Setaria farmers in East Asia: A linguistic and archaeological model......Page 166
Part II: Linguistics......Page 192
6 The integrity of the Austronesian language family: From Taiwan to Oceania......Page 194
7 The Formosan language family......Page 215
8 Time perspective of Formosan Aborigines......Page 260
9 To which language family does Chinese belong, or what’s in a name?......Page 268
10 Altaic loans in Old Chinese......Page 303
11 Comparing Japanese and Korean......Page 312
12 The speed of language change, typology and history: Languages, speakers and demography in North-East India......Page 336
Part III: Genetics......Page 360
13 The GM genetic polymorphism in Taiwan aborigines: New data revealing remarkable differentiation patterns......Page 362
14 Maternal lineage ancestry of Taiwan Aborigines shared with the Polynesians......Page 383
15 Mitochondrial DNA diversity of Tao-Yami and Batan islanders: Relationships with other Taiwanese aborigines......Page 398
16 A genetic perspective on the origins and dispersal of the Austronesians: Mitochondrial DNA variation from Madagascar to Easter Island......Page 405
17 A DNA signature for the expansion of irrigation in Bali?......Page 425
18 The effect of history and life-style on genetic structure of North Asian populations......Page 444
19 Y-chromosome phylogeography in Asia: Inferring haplogroup origins and polarity of haplogroup dispersion......Page 465
20 Understanding yak pastoralism in Central Asian Highlands: Mitochondrial DNA evidence for origin, domestication and dispersal of domestic yak......Page 476
Index......Page 492