Pig Sacrifices, Mobility and the Ritual Recreation of Community Among the Amis of Taiwan

Bibliographic Data

ID2174683
AuthorsL Yeh (0000-0003-1539-3532, corresponding author), Shu-Ling Yeh
Year2013
Volume14
Issue1
Pages41-56
Publication date2013-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14442213.2012.747557
OpenAlexW2078157104
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited16

Based on fieldwork in several Austronesian-speaking Amis villages of Taiwan, this article explores the importance of ritual as a nexus for reproducing locality and relatedness in an era of high mobility. Amis pig sacrifices, as ritual exchanges with the ancestors, are a traditionally generative source of life, social identity and village solidarity. Today associated with gendered and generational migration and the flow of money into and out of villages, these ritual occasions continue to bind sedentary and circulating villagers and sustain modern Amis villages as 'translocalities'. The key role of paternal-fraternal social organisation and communal feasting in the gathering of scattered villagers and resources demonstrates the relevance of traditional Amis ritual formats in response to changes caused by global forces. Keywords: Circular MigrationPig SacrificesTranslocal CommunityMoneySocial ChangeAmisTaiwan Acknowledgements The research and writing of this article were financially supported by the Australian National University, the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica (Taiwan), the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Government's Endeavour Research Fellowship and the National Science Council (Taiwan) under the Grants NSC-100-2914-I-143-002-A1 and NSC-100-2420-H-143-002-MY3. I have greatly benefited from the comments and criticisms of many colleagues who have read previous drafts of this and related papers including Mark Mosko, James Fox, Christine Helliwell, Mac Marshall, Roxana Waterson, Nicholas Tapp, Philip Taylor, Sin Wen Lau, Nanlai Cao, Chee Han Lim, Ying-Kuei Huang, Wen-Te Chen, Shiun-Wey Huang, Bien Chiang, Shu-Yuan Yang, Jeffrey Martin, Helen Parsons, Mandy Scott and two anonymous reviewers. I am particularly indebted to my Cidatayay friends who have allowed me to learn their knowledge and included me in their relations. Any and all shortcomings contained herein are my own. Notes 1. The paternal-fraternal organisation is a male initiation organisation of each Amis village. This unique organisation of the Amis village not only structures the relations of its members on the idiom of family relationships, but plays an indispensable role in the production and reproduction of the entire Amis village community. It is through the overarching paternal-fraternal system that the numerous matrifocal houses resident in any given Amis village are integrated into an encompassing kinship-based society. See Yeh (Citation2012) for more information on the overall structure of the Amis paternal-fraternal organisation and how the classificatory father-son and elder-younger-brother relations between and within the initiation sets are explicitly represented by the concepts and practices of the Amis. 2. The formation of women's church groups in Cidatayay is related to conversion to Christianity, and also to the situation in which most of the men work in urban areas and send money home. Thus women fill the void left by men by organising themselves in the worship of Mother Mary and mother-daughter relations. This seeming change reproduces the ritual kinship structure of the paternal-fraternal organisation. 3. The reforms promulgated by Vatican II include the sharing of ecclesial responsibility with the laity. A Spanish Jesuit, Father Jesus Brena SJ, inspired by the methods used in Latin America, helped to establish the program for forming indigenous 'volunteer apostles'. Volunteer apostles are parishioners who willingly follow training which enables them to take charge of some aspect of parish service, such as Sunday liturgy, visiting the sick and dying, leading Bible sharing, or animating a prayer group (Lardinois, Chan and Sun Citation2004, 99-100). 4. The Iwan parish, which was established in 1959 by the Swiss Fathers of the Secular Missionary Institute of Bethlehem, is divided into several areas, mainly along the lines of the previous encompassing kinship system. There is only one priest in this parish, and therefore the laity are given responsibility as far as possible for the management of their religious affairs. 5. At the time of my research 1 AUD=25 NTD. Additional informationNotes on contributorsShu-Ling Yeh Shu-Ling Yeh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Cultural Affairs, National Taitung University

Geography · Political science · Recreation · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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