Reappearing the Glory of Ancestor:Hierarchy System and Post-Typhoon Morakot Culture Reconstruction of Laiyi Tribe
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Li, Yi-Pin
Abstract
In 2009, Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan, which destroyed most of the aboriginal tribes’ homeland, and Laiyi Tribe in Pingtung County could not avoided it, either. Other than the damage Typhoon Morakot had done on their homes, the disaster also lashed severely the cultural legacy of Laiyi Tribe. Typhoon Morakot caused some relics that the clan members had reserved for many years were buried under the ground by the mudslide forever. Meanwhile, after the disaster, the government enforced permanent housing policy, helping the refugees to move from the aboriginal homes to reconstruct their new homes. In the end, half of the clan members chose to move to New Laiyi Permanent Housing, while the other half decided to stay to reestablish their aboriginal tribe. However, when a tribe is divided into two groups, how can they inherit their culture in the future? Another concern is that New Laiyi Permanent Housing is close to Han Culture, which aroused the clan members’ worry about Paiwan’s ethnocide.
Every tribe has its own social system and cultural context, so the culture reconstruction policy implementation and non-governmental organizations’ assistance have to consider the tribe’s social system. Taking Laiyi tribe as an example, this report observed the hierarchical system in Paiwan’s social traditions. It explored what influences of the hierarchy in Paiwan’s social traditions had on culture conservation before the disaster and on culture reconstruction after the disaster. Combining Paiwan wedding ceremony, animism, woodcarving, and stone house with issues related to post-disaster reconstruction, it discussed the process and the difficulties of culture reconstruction of the tribe’s chieftain and commoner.
The report found that both the chieftain and commoner acted to preserve culture relics before the disaster took place, but most preservation actions were taken by the chieftain’s family—the chieftain preserved many cultural items. Although commoner preserved cultural items as well, they just keep single Paiwan cultural item. During post-disaster culture reconstruction, the chieftain continued to do the conservation by promoting establishment of relics museum, caring for issues like relocation of sacred house, cultural vocabulary’s losing order, and etc. In order to pass on family or tribal histories, no matter there is a wind disaster or not, the chieftain still kept on preserving the tribal culture. As for commoner, they preserved the relics due to their interest. When natural disaster came, they had no other choices but stopped the conservation. Nevertheless, after the disaster, the commoner could receive more opportunities to take part in cultural relic conservation, through government’s reconstruction plan and external groups’ help.
In preserving tribal culture, there are different obstacles for the chieftain and the commoner. The identity of “the chieftain” can foster the motivation of culture preservation, and is beneficial to the chieftain’s validity for conservation. Also, the chieftain is more capable of conserving culture independently because of the family culture legacy and relics accumulation. But, with the weakening of the chieftain’s authority, whether the chieftain’s conservation action can be accepted by his clan members are impacted by the past colonial regime, the introduction of western religion, and the way the chieftain preserves culture. Moreover, the report found as well that although the hierarchy seems to decline, the commoner are restricted in culture preservation. They have to respect the nobles’ exclusive privileges. Owing that the commoner have less understanding of the tribal history, they often collect tribal history with the chieftain and consult the chieftain about the tribal history.
Nowadays, in spite of the gradually declining Hierarchy, the chieftain is the one who has most knowledge of tribal culture and who are the most enthusiastic to preserve culture. As a result, people still have to consult the chieftain about post-disaster culture reconstruction. Meanwhile, when the chieftain preserve culture legacy of tribe, the chieftain can share his cultural knowledge with clan members and let clan members have more opportunity to understand culture legacy of tribe. Under such circumstances, the policy execution of post-disaster reconstruction and external groups’ help have to take Hierarchy into considerations lest Paiwan Hierarchy may collapse unconsciously.
Subjects
文化重建
永久屋
來義部落
莫拉克風災
排灣
階序制度
SDGs
Type
thesis
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