Millet, pastoralism, and double-handled vessels: spread of the Tibeto-Burman languages from the archaeological point of view
Abstract
Monograph attempts at reconstructing the spread of Tibeto-Burman languages on the basis of archeological evidence. Origins of the Sino-Tibetan language family are traced to the Neolithic cultures of the middle Yellow River valley and the spread of those cultures to the Chinese Northwest is then interpreted within framework of the Bellwood's hypothesis connecting the spread of language families with a shift to the agricultural way of life, ensuing population increase, and expansion of agricultural groups from their original homeland.
It is pointed out that long-term continual development in the Chinese Northwest then led to emergence of mixed agro-pastoral subsistence, which facilitated penetration of the Northwestern, presumably Tibeto-Burman speaking, human groups to the mountainous areas, where in historical periods and recently one finds ethnics speaking Tibeto-Burman languages.