The Prehistory of the Daic- or Kra-Dai-Speaking Peoples and the Hypothesis of an Austronesian Connection

Abstract

The Daic or Kra-Dai (also Kadai, Tai-Kadai or Zhuang-Dong) languages cover a substantial region of East and Southeast Asia. Thai, their best-known representative, dominates Thailand, but the family is generally considered to originate in South China, where the languages are most diverse. Despite their importance, little is known about their prehistory, homeland and the causes of their expansion; proposed archaeological correlations deal only with the most recent phases. An earlier literature offered a wide variety of proposals, informed by only a little archaeology and a great deal of crypto-racial speculation (e.g. Dodd 1923; Mote 1964; Solheim 1964; Terwiel 1978). A substantial literature concerning the identity of the ancient Yue peoples (e.g. Unknown 1992), whose cultures are extensively recorded in Chinese sources, exists in Chinese but has been little exploited by archaeologists. A connection of some type between Daic and Austronesian languages has long been noted, but recently, more linguists have begun to take seriously the argument that Daic is simply a branch of Austronesian, albeit radically restructured under the influence of mainland languages. This would imply that Austronesian speakers landed on the mainland and settled there at the same period as their movement out of Taiwan towards the Philippines. One possible confirmation of this hypothesis are the links in material culture and iconography between the cultures of aboriginal Taiwan and the Daic peoples. If so, this would imply rethinking our interpretation of the archaeological record. The paper examines linguistic, ethnographic, archaeological and iconographic evidence in support of this hypothesis.