ABSTRACT
It is probable that all sinologists are to one degree or another interested in the history of the Chinese people. Of particular concern in recent years has been the field of Chinese pre-history, upon which exciting new archeological finds continue to throw light with each passing day. The archeological record tends to be most illuminating in the area of material culture; but there is another aspect of pre-history which, though not as celebrated in print, is surely of equal importance. Mention of the pre-history of Chinese immediately brings to mind the so-called ‘Sino-Tibetan Hypothesis’, i.e. the theory that Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages are genetically related. Scholars who study this question, called ‘Sino-Tibetanists’, comprise a rather small group; and of these no more than a handful are sinologists, i.e. persons with sinological training and competence in the Chinese language who work primarily in the area of Chinese studies.
