The relationship between the environmental change of the Zhujiang River Delta in Holocene and its cultural origins and propagation

Abstract

The cultural process of the Zhujiang River Delta began 6,000 a B.P.. The origins and propagation of different kinds of cultures have close relations to its climatic change, especially to its sea-land change in Holocene. These relations are showed in three respects. (1) The environmental change in Holocene results in the cultural evolution of the Zhujiang River Delta; and different kinds of cultures show the environmental characteristics at that time. (2) The horticultural culture and the rice-growing culture are all developed in the Zhujiang River Delta, but they have different cultural ecological factors and are not a successive developing process. (3) The environmental change promotes the propagation of the late primitive culture and the rice-growing culture and the formation of the late primitive culture district and the rice-growing cultural district of the Zhujiang River Delta.