Course title課程大綱 : Comparing Key-Words in Indigenous Cultures: Oral, Material Culture in Formosan Present Day Tribal life.

Instructor:蔡恪恕副教授, Dr. Jozsef Szakos,

Goal: Introducing research students to view Taiwan indigenous cultures through the contrastive method of comparing key concepts of cultures and religions.

Introducing research students to conduct ethnological studies through a combination etymological comparison, fieldwork and interdisciplinary approaches (ethnology, linguistics, historical and religious studies).

Students are encouraged and motivated to choose a future degree thesis topic in this area.

Content and assessment:Students go through the reading materials and participate in discussions, field-work practice (questionnaires, transcription methods), and complete a relevant research paper by the end of the semester.

Sessions:

  1. Introduction to the situation of Austronesian speakers and cultures/Contrasted with Boas’ research on American Indians (Kwakiutl Mythology, Language and Culture)
  2. Dispersal and distribution of Austronesian languages (Archeology, Language, Material culture)
  3. The language of the myths: What are the relevant topics, motifs? What do they tell us about the ancient lifestyle?
  4. Structuring the language of indigenous religions/beliefs in Taiwan (rituals, spirits, deities, holy places, according to the tribes)
  5. Material culture and myths of the Tsou tribe/ Religion in past and present, tribal customs and their linguistic expression.
  6. Review of Academia Sinica Publications in preparation for the field trip to Tsou tribe.
  7. Field-trip Alishan Tsou: Materials for a first-hand experience of language and belief systems among the present day village people.
  8. Review of published materials about Kanakanavu tribe (social system and language) in preparation for field-trip.
  9. Field-trip Kanakanavu (Kaohsiung county): Materials for the language and belief systems of southern Tsou.
  10. Review of Saaroa research materials in preparation for the field-trip.
  11. Field-trip Saaroa (Kaohsiung county): Materials for the culture and belief systems (ceremonies) of Saaroa tribe.
  12. Problems of the indigenous languages documentation in connection with myths and Bible translations.
  13. Establishing the main characteristics of language/culture/religion in a changing Formosan austronesian world.
  14. Final assessment and concluding session, finding a synthesis.

Bibliography:

(The following is a preliminary reading list. Relevant publications, multimedia, WWW materials and manuscripts will be handed out during the course.)

Bellwood, Peter. Et al. 1975. The Prehistory of Oceania. Current Anthropology. Vol. 16., No 1, pp. 9-28.

Bellwood, Peter. 1987. The Polynesians: Prehistory of an Island People. London: Thames and Hudson.

Bellwood, P., Fox, James, Tryon, D. (ed.) 1995. The Austronesians: Historical and Comparative Perspectives.Canberra: RSPAS.ANU.

Bischof-Okubo, Yukiko.1989. Uebernatuerliche Wesen im Glauben der Altvoelker Taiwans. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag.

Blust, Robert. 1976. Austronesian Culture History: Some Linguistic Inferences and Their Relations to the Archeological Record. World Archeology, Vol. 8, No 1, Archeology and Linguistics. Pp. 19-43. Published by: Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Blust, Robert. 1980. Early Austronesian Social Organization: The Evidence of Language. Current Anthropology. Vol. 21. No. 2. pp. 205-247.

Blust, Robert. 1981. Linguistic Evidence for Some Early Austronesian Taboos. American Anthropologist. New Series, Vol. 83. pp. 285-319.

Blust, Robert. 1988. Austronesian root theory: An essay on the limits of morphology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Brown, Cecil H. 1977. Folk Botanical Life-Forms: Their Universality and Growth.

American Anthropologist. New Series, Vol. 79. No. 2, pp. 317-342.

Boas, Franz. 1935. Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected in Mythology. New York: American Folk-lore Society.

BUCK, CARL DARLING. 1949. A dictionary of selected synonyms in the principal Indo- European languages: A contribution to the history of ideas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Clark, J.T. and Terrell, J. 1978. Archeology in Oceania. Annual Review of Anthropology. Vol. 7., pp. 293-319.

Dempfwolff, Otto. 1934. Induktiver Aufbau einer indonesischen Ursprache. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

Grace, George W. 1961. Austronesian Linguistics and Culture History. American Anthropologist. New Series, Vol. 63. No. 2, Part 1, pp. 359-368.

Kaneko, Erika. 1975. Die Religionen der Altvoelker Taiwans. ?? Sonderdruck aus Woerterbuch der Mythologie, Band VI. Herausgegeben von Egidius Schmalzriedt und Hans Wilhelm Haussig.

Kaneko, Erika. ?? Die Mythologie der Ethnischen Minderheiten Taiwans.

LI, PAUL JEN-KUEI; CHENG-HWA TSANG; DAH-AN HO; YING-KUEI HUWANG; and CHIU- YU TSENG (eds.) 1995. Austronesian studies relating to Taiwan (Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica, no. 3).

Oppenheimer, Stephen. 2004. The ‚Express Train from Taiwan to Polynesia’: On the congruence of Proxy Lines of Evidence. World Archeology, Vol. 36. pp. 591-600.

Pawley, Andrew and Ross, Malcolm. 1993. Austronesian Historical Linguistics and Culture History. Annual Review of Anthropology. Vol. 22. , pp. 425-459.

Quack, Anton. 1985. Priesterinnen, Heilerinnen, Schamaninnen? Die Poringao der Puyuma von Katipol (Taiwan) dargestellt und analysiert nach Aufzeichnungen aus dem Nachlass von D. Schroeder. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.

Terrell, John Edward. 2004. Introduction: ‚Austronesia’ and the Great Austronesian Migration. World Archeology, Vol 36, No. 4. pp. 586-590.

Tryon, Darrell. Ed. 1995. Comparative Austronesian Dictionary. An Introduction to Austronesian Studies. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.