The History Of Archaeological Anthropology In China(From 1896 To 1985)

“Archaeological anthropology” refers to physical anthropology study with the research object of human remains unearthed through archaeological excavation.It was proposed by Pan Qifeng in 1987,aiming at breaking through traditional research methods and contents of physical anthropology and combining it with archaeology,historical ethnology,linguistics and other disciplines.Physical anthropology was introduced into China at the end of the 19 th century.Along with the development of archaeology in China and increasing number of ancient human remains which have been found,the object of physical anthropology study expanded from modern people to ancient people and finally developed into archaeological anthropology.In consideration of continuity of discipline development,the main contents of this paper includes research activities of physical anthropology in China at the early time and research activities of archaeological anthropology between1910 and 1985.In this paper,based on collected literature and in consideration of the research range,and with reference of previous study,archaeological anthropology in China from 1896 to 1985 will be discussed from three periods:First phase: The introduction of physical anthropology(from late 19 th century to early1930s)This period dated back to the year 1896 when Torii Ryuzo conducted comprehensive anthropological survey including physical survey in Taiwan and ended at the beginning of 1930 s when Chinese scholars carried out analysis of physical characteristics of modern Chinese.In this period,there were number of foreign scholars coming to China to conduct anthropometry and osteometry on Chinese,in the meantime,there were a group of Chinese scholars starting to learn physical anthropology and conducting research.This part introduces the ideological trend of anthropology and view on ethnology in the early 20 th century in detail.Later studies of archaeological anthropology were greatly influenced by the research concepts and methods in this period.In addition,this paper takes the studies of Li Ji and Wu Dingliang as example,and discusses the studies of physical features of modern Chinese in this period,which is the first step of exploring the forming process of Chinese people.Second Phase: The birth of Chinese archaeological anthropology(from 1910 to 1949)The second phase dated from 1910 when Japanese scholar Hasebe Kotondo conducted study on human bones in the tombs of Lvshun and Dalian,which is theearliest-known study on human remains found in ancient sites in China,and ended in1949.With the development of archaeology in China,the object of physical anthropology study expanded from modern people to human remains in ancient sites and eventually archaeological anthropology came into being in China.In this period,most of the scholars conducting researches in China were foreigners,especially Japanese scholars who exceeded scholars from other countries to a large extent as their research activities,duration of study,number of research results and researchers.Therefore,this part presents research activities of Japanese scholars in detail from two periods and sums up the main features and existing problems of studies conducted by Japanese scholars.In addition,this part introduces Wu Dingliang,representative of Chinese scholars,who have made great contribution to research methods and personnel training of archaeological anthropology.Third Phase: Specialization of Chinese archaeological anthropology(From 1949 to1985)The third phase dated back to 1949 when People's Republic of China was founded and ended at 1980 s.The publication of Study on the Skull of Yin Ruins in Anyang in1985 can be regarded as the milestone of this period.In this period,some scholars started to probe into the relationship between human remains research and archaeological research and emphasized the collection of human bones in field excavation.Moreover,a number of books introducing basic knowledge of anthropology and anthropometric methods were published.This part introduces archaeological anthropology studies that scholars have conducted in China as well and sum up the characteristics of these studies.In terms of number of ancient sites involved and time and space range,greater progress has been made in this period than the last period.There are numerous materials accumulated which made thematic research possible.The racial type of ancient residences became the central subject of archaeological anthropology in this period.Therefore,this part also summarizes the research results of ethnographic in this period,as well as the problems in terms of materials,standards and methods,and theories.