Thus far I have read some articles and skimmed some books regarding Taiwanese aboriginal tribes. Taiwan: A New History, by Rubenstein, discusses differing origin theories of these different aboriginal tribes. Some theorists, like Hendrik Kern and George Mackay, support the Southern Origins Theory. They believe early inhabitants came to Taiwan from Malaysia as is suggested by some aboriginal legends, customs, physical features, and currents. Other theorists believe in the Northern Origin Theory suggesting early aboriginal tribes originated from China and Japan. . .
Through reading these arguments I agree with the remainder of the theorists who believe that the Taiwanese Aboriginal tribes were a result of the combination of the two origin theories, making the island very unique and diverse in Asian prehistory.
This same book continued to discuss Taiwanese aboriginal tribes still existing today. Rubenstein noted that most Taiwanese natives today have aboriginal ancestors, which I found pretty cool considering the amount of globalization and western contact Taiwan has encountered within the past few centuries.
In another book, Culture and Customs of Taiwan, by Davidson and Reed, I found that many Taiwanese aboriginal tribes exhibited many similarities. Most of them were organized into egalitarian villages, had monogamous marriage, maintained significant kinship and non-kinship distinctions, and practiced headhunting- which is interesting. Davidson and Reed noted that headhunting was a significant part of establishing prestige in almost all tribes, regardless of language or geographical location.
In this book I also found reference to the Nine Tribes Aboriginal Village, “where experts have reconstructed the physical components of villages associated with all the enduring aboriginal groups,” (Davidson, 4). I am interested in looking up more about this because it was constructed in 1986, and may lead to more information about perceptions and influences of these cultures today. I found these sites ( Tribes of Taiwan , Nine Tribes ) while looking on a9 for more information that may be of help later.
Researching more about the “Nine Tribes Aboriginal Village” may help me learn more about the importance of these tribal cultures today. I think this will be a good way to narrow my investigations. I plan to look at the remaining Taiwanese aboriginal tribes and examine their place in contemporary Taiwanese society.
This is a very interesting topic. It is important to think about who was there before the nationalist chinese were forced onto Taiwan from mainland china. This struck my interest because it reminded me of a friend from home whos grandfather worked very high up in chang kai chek?'s organization, and fled to taiwan with the nationalists. This friend would visit her relatives there and say she was going to China. Certainly the refugees from mainland china have maintained their identity as chinese, and i wonder what effect this has had on the aboriginal population. Were those escaping a dictatorial regime unjust to the aboriginal tribes??
Posted by: joe at October 12, 2004 04:17 PMThere's a whole other intermediate chapter, as immigrants arrived from Fujian province over several hundred years and gradually pushed the aboriginal peoples further into the mountains. Coxinga (more properly Cheng Cheng-kung = Zheng Chenggong) is one of the villains of the piece... but there are others whose activities on the island have been significant, including the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Japanese.
Posted by: Hugh at October 12, 2004 06:38 PMYour topic is very interesting and out of tall the project topics in the class this one sounds more "anthro-like". I think it would be interesting to know where the Taiwanese aboriginals believed their ancestory to be from since studies suggest either Malaysia or China or perhaps both. Also you probably know this, but it would be good to focus on some important differences that may have caused a clash between aboriginals and the later Taiwanese immigrants.
-Ted
Posted by: Ted at October 13, 2004 09:51 AM