| Abstract |
Abstract
This study centers on Wen-lang Community Association and its effort to re-establish archery and the related crafts a tradition of Truku culture. Observing the process of promoting the traditional archery we reflect on the cultural characteristics of Truku, being an egalitarian society, and indicate that previous perception of ¡§gaya¡¨ to be the key to understanding Truku culture, as many recent studies have suggested, has actually been a narrowed and thus incomplete conception. With an analysis on the cultural significance of hunting, the present study points out that Balaybi Truku is the key idea to understanding Truku culture. It is Balaybi Truku that is the cultural dynamic prevailing underlyingly in the Truku people¡¦s everyday life. The dynamic, however, prevails under a certain social condition and is open to corrosive powers from, for example, politics, as will be shown in the following chapters. The thesis consists of six chapters in total.
The first chapter introduces two tribal activities ¡V ¡§traditional archery¡¨ and ¡§Dragon Boat Race,¡¨ in both of which the researcher has participated in person. Seeing the Truku players¡¦ gap in performance in the two respective activities, the researcher was faced with a practical challenge and started questioning how the Truku Tribe, defined as an egalitarian society by archaeologists, could achieve its social integration.
The second chapter is an introduction of the field village (Wen-lan, Siou lin) and the Wen-lan Community Association. The third chapter reviews previous archaeological literature on topics of egalitarian society, individualism, gaga/gaya, and balaybi truku, proposing that it is ¡§tribal individualism,¡¨ rather than the conventional conception of individualism in the western societies, that has existed as the essence of our target egalitarian society. The former places emphasis on the capabilities of an individual while the latter stresses a person¡¦s rights. Different tribes, even though all belonging to the so-called egalitarian societies, possess different cultural dynamics due to their cultural varieties. In the fourth chapter of this study we, through describing and analyzing Truku¡¦s hunting behavior, define ¡§balaybi Truku¡¨ as being the underlying cultural dynamic and we furthermore, propose a model to see the inner construction of it. The fifth chapter reveals how traditional archery has developed from within the community association, to Wen-lan the village, Siou lin the township, and then all the other neighboring tribes, illustrating how a cultural dynamic is embodied in the traditional activity of shooting arrows. It is also proposed under what kind of social conditions the cultural dynamic is able to survive, and how it may be interfered and even destroyed. Finally we conclude with a discussion on how a cultural dynamic and other existing authorities compete. Based on the personal experience of participating in the community work we also provide an inspection of the existing ¡§community infrastructure establishment¡¨ projects.
The study exemplifies the cultural dynamic, a strength commonly neglected by participating activists of no matter what levels ¡V villagers, politicians, community workers, and so on) but in fact is what can shed light on the deeply-rooted cultural meaning behind many daily customary behaviors. It is the invisible existence that is able to survive the goods and bads through a culture¡¦s history.
|
|---|
