LI LIU

Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor in Chinese Archaeology
Stanford University

The farming/language dispersal hypothesis proposes that significant language families in the world dispersed along with the expansions of agriculture. Sino-Tibetan is one of the largest language families in the world. Recent studies in comparative-historical linguistics suggest that Sino-Tibetan originated in the Yellow River valley, north China, around 8000-7200 BP, corresponding to the Yangshao culture population and their forebears. The divergence of Sino-Tibetan languages commenced around 5900 years ago, coinciding with Yangshao’s westward expansion to the upper Yellow River region and the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. The Yangshao culture is characterized by highly developed painted pottery vessels and a centripetal arrangement in settlement pattern. Painted pottery vessels containing foods and drinks were likely used in communal feasts, together with music and dancing, which were conducted in built environments of certain forms. Communal feasts helped to constitute various social relations through the means of food sharing and group dancing. Such ritual activities helped reinforce and maintain cultural identity, collaborations, and connections among related groups when the Proto Sino-Tibetan populations expanded to new territories. Many elements of this ritual tradition have persisted for thousands of years and are still practiced among many ethnic groups in SW China today.