Thinking about LanguageOrigins of Human Communication. By Michael Tomasello. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.

Abstract

Within similar contexts some scholars are quick to give a conclusive definition of modern Tibetan cultural identity as “adhering publicly to the official culture while masking their true sentiments” (Goldstein and Kapstein 1998). In contrast, On the Margins of Tibet reaches a rather open-ended conclusion that pushes its reader to think more about such a complex and sometimes contradictory situation. Today’s Tibet in China is neither a cultural and religious ruin nor a flourishing site of Tibetan culture. Tibetan people have to constantly negotiate their everyday life struggle in a fast-changing China with the maintenance and development of their own culture and ethnic identity. The virtue of this book lies not just in a cultural contextualization of contradictory political statements in one particular case; it also contributes to the body of general scholarly work on ethnicity, culture, and indigenous rights in the age of globalization. It thereby, in turn, broadens our understanding of Sino-Tibetan questions. Careful readers will find visible errors—Chinese characters, pinyin, and romanized Tibetan spelling—throughout the volume. Whether the authors lacked a Tibetan/Chinese editor or simply had typos that could have been easily corrected is unclear. For example, on the first page is a map of the Tibetan areas outside of the TAR incorrectly labeled “Map of Tibet Autonomous Region.” Though the book provides a comprehensive source of references to area specialists, I still notice the lack of some very notable references on related subjects. That having been said, this volume makes an important contribution by reflecting on the concept of culture as it relates to Chinese/Tibetan studies.