The Prehistoric Maritime Frontier of Southeast China: Indigenous Bai Yue and Their Oceanic Dispersal

This open-access book explores the cultural history, ethnic connectivity, and oceanic transportation of the ancient Bai Yue in the prehistoric maritime region of southeast China and southeast Asia. It demonstrates the development of the "barbarian" Bai Yue and Island Yi and their cultural interaction with the northern Huaxia in early Chinese civilization. Archaeological typologies reveal a unique cultural tradition from the local Paleolithic age to early Neolithization. Ethnographical investigations highlight their native cultural context, seafaring technology, and navigation techniques, and their interaction with Austronesian and other foreign maritime ethnicities.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2021
Publisher: Springer Verlag, Singapore

This open-access book explores multidisciplinary research on the cultural history, ethnic connectivity, and oceanic transportation of the ancient Indigenous Bai Yue (百越) in the prehistoric maritime region of southeast China and southeast Asia. Situated at the forefront of China's maritime frontier, historical documents reveal the development of the "barbarian" Bai Yue and Island Yi (岛夷) and their cultural interactions with the northern Huaxia (华夏) in early Chinese civilization within the geopolitical order of the "Central State-Four Peripheries Barbarians-Four Seas." Archaeological typologies of prehistoric remains showcase a unique cultural tradition originating from the local Paleolithic age and continuing into early Neolithization across this border region. A comprehensive analysis of material culture from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age demonstrates the stability and resilience of indigenous cultures even amidst the migratory expansion of Huaxia and Han (汉) from north to south. Ethnographical investigations shed light on the native cultural context, seafaring technology, and navigation techniques of the Bai Yue, as well as their interactions with Austronesian and other foreign maritime ethnicities. In essence, this manuscript presents a fresh perspective on the distinctive cultural landscape of indigenous ethnicities in southeast China, characterized by thousands of years of stable tradition, a remarkable maritime orientation, and extensive overseas cultural hybridization in the coastal regions of southeast China.

Weight: 444g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789811640810
Edition number: 1st ed. 2021