雲南と馬 (特集1: ヒマラヤ研究ユニット)

Abstract

中国雲南省の梅里雪山とその周辺地域を訪問した。登山口となった西当村から、到着地である氷河湖下のベースキャンプまで、片道約16キロの道程の大半を現地のウマに乗って移動した。同行したメンバー全員が複数のウマに分乗するにあたって、ウマの割り当てをくじびきで決める方法が採用された。これは、ウマの割り当てに人間の意思が入ることでトラブルになることを避けるための、現地流のリスク・マネージメントの方策と解釈できる。茶馬古道に示されるように、ウマとヒトは雲南省および梅里雪山周辺では歴史的に深い関わりがあり、ウマが現地の文化の重要な部分をなしている。今回の訪問における長時間の乗馬体験によって、温厚なウマを選択してきたウマの家畜化に関するヒトとウマの関係の歴史が明瞭に理解できた。こうした家畜化は、社会的知性の進化ともかかわりが深い現象と考えることができる。 I visited Yunnan, China for the first time in my life. The area I visited was Meili Xueshan. The travel was mostly done by riding horses, with the help of local people. A unique feature of our visitors’ riding horses was that we had to draw lottery to decide a horse that we will ride on. It appears that this system is to prevent human decision to take place in horse selection but to leave it to chance as a risk management strategy. The area I visited can be characterized by Tibetan culture, and the road called “tea road” extends from Yunnan, China to Tibet for exchanges of tea leaves in Yunnan and horses in Tibet. The humans and horses have long history in this area, as well as many other places in the world. Due to domestication, the most conspicuous feature of these horses are their tameness. There is a phenomenon called domestication syndrome, and close look at domestication would lead to a hypothesis that tameness caused by domestication and facilitation of social intelligence are closely tied with each other. The horse riding experience in Yunnan make clear that this hypothesis may at work in domestication of horses.