TAIWAN INDIGENOUS CULTURE

臺灣原住民族 – 文化

CULTURE of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES of TAIWAN

Boat Festival of the Yami People. Orchid Island. Taiwan (teldap.tw).

CULTURE of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES of TAIWAN – 臺灣原住民族 – scroll down

GEOGRAPHY of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES of TAIWAN – 臺灣原住民族 – click here

CATALOGUE of PEOPLE GROUPS of TAIWAN – click here

臺灣原住民族 – 目錄 –

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The CLOUDBRIDGE GUIDE to CULTURE

of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES of TAIWAN

CONTENTS of THIS PAGE – 商品目錄

  • INTRODUCTION – 摘要
  • ABORIGINES – 原住民
  • LINGUISTICS & PEOPLE GROUPS

INTRODUCTION – 摘要

Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples (or formerly: “Taiwanese Aborigines”), are also referred to as Formosan People, Austronesian Taiwanese or Gāoshān People. The indigenous peoples in groups currently recognized by the Government of Taiwan number almost 569,008 or 2.38% of the island’s population.

In the future, the Government of Taiwan could officially recogize additional People Groups, particularly the Taiwanese Plain Indigenous Peoples and the recognized population of indigenous peoples on the Island of Taiwan would rise to over 800,000 people, out of a total population of almost 24 million people.

  • wikipedia.org – Indigenous people of Oceana @ Wikipedia . org
  • wikipedia.org – Indigenous people of Taiwan @ Wikipedia . org
  • wikipedia.org – Plains indigenour peoples @ Wikipedia . org
  • iwgia.org – Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan @ International Workgroup for Indigenous Affairs
  • culturalsurvival.org – A Special Report on the First Nations of Taiwan @ Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine
  • apc.gov.tw – Taiwan Council of Indigenous Peoples – website
  • refworld.org – World Directory of Minorities & Indigenous Peoples @ RefWorld . org

ABORIGINES – 原住民

Taiwanese Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. The earliest detailed records dating from the arrival of Dutch explorers in 1624 describe the aborigines as living in independent villages of varying size. Between the villages there was frequent trade, intermarriage, warfare, and alliances against common enemies.

The different aboriginal groups had distinctive languages as shown below:

Families of Formosan languages before Chinese colonization. Malayo-Polynesian (red) may lie within Eastern Formosan (purple). Note that the white section in the northwest of the country does not indicate a complete absence of aboriginal people from that part of Taiwan. (wikipedia.org).
Original geographic distributions of Taiwanese aboriginal peoples. Some groups are not formally recognized by the central government at the present time as authentic aboriginal groups, and some have been “assimilated” by the ethnic Han Chinese majority. (wikipedia.org).
A simplified map of the larger groups of ethnic minorities currently recognized by the central government on the Island of Taiwan: bbc.co.uk

Recent research suggests the ancestors of the aboriginal groups may have been living on Taiwan for approximately 5,500 years in relative isolation before a major immigration of Han Chinese people from mainland China began in the 17th century.

LINGUISTICS & PEOPLE GROUPS

Colorized photograph (pre-WW II) of a warrior of the Tsou People Group of Taiwan. (wikipedia.org).

Taiwanese indigenous peoples are Austronesian peoples, with linguistic and genetic ties to other Austronesian peoples. Related ethnic groups include Polynesians, most people of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, among others.

The Amis People Group of Taiwan performing a traditional dance. (wikipedia.org).

The current consensus of the scientific and linguistic community is that the Polynesians originated from the indigenous Taiwanese, and that there are strong linguistic and genetic ties between the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples and other Austronesian People Groups.

The map of present day Austronesia. (wikipedia.org).

The geographic region that encompasses native Austronesian-speaking populations is frequently referred to as Austronesia. Historically, Austronesians uniquely live in an “island world”. Austronesian regions are almost exclusively islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans, with predominantly tropical or subtropical climates with considerable seasonal rainfall. They had limited penetration into the interiors of large islands or mainlands.

Austronesians were the first humans to invent ocean-going sailing technologies, which allowed them to colonize a large part of the Indo-Pacific region.  Prior to the 16th century Colonial Era, the Austronesian language family was the most widespread language family in the world, spanning half the planet from Easter Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean to Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean.

Map of expansion of the Austronesian People Groups. (wikipedia.org).

For the past 50-60 years, linguists have generally accepted that the chronology of the dispersal of languages within a given language family can be traced from the area of greatest linguistic variety to that of the least. For example, the English Language in North America has large numbers of speakers, but relatively low dialectal diversity, while English in Great Britain has much higher diversity. The low level of linguistic variety of spoken English in North America suggests a more recent origin of English in North America when compared to Great Britian.

From the standpoint of historical linguistics, the place of origin of the Austronesian Family of languages (i.e., the Proto-Austronesian language) is most likely the main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa. The deepest divisions in Austronesian are found among the families of the native Formosan languages. One specialist of Formosan Languages has placed nine of the ten primary branches of the Austronesian language family on Formosa (the Island of Taiwan).

Other scholars argue about the number of principal branches among the Formosan Language Family, but there is general agreement among linguists that the origin of Austronesian languages was among the Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan.

Austronesian languages are spoken today by about 386 million people (4.9% of the global population), making it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers. Major Austronesian languages with the highest number of speakers are: Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, and Filipino (Tagalog). The family contains 1,257 languages, which is the second most of any language family.

(wikipedia.org).

The protohistory of the Austronesian people can be traced farther back through time. To get an idea of the original homeland of the populations ancestral to the Austronesian peoples (as opposed to strictly linguistic arguments), evidence from archaeology and population genetics may be adduced. Studies from the science of genetics have produced conflicting outcomes. Some researchers find evidence for a proto-Austronesian homeland on the Asian mainland, while others mirror the linguistic research, rejecting an East Asian origin in favor of Taiwan. Archaeological evidence suggests that the ancestors of the Austronesians spread from the South Chinese mainland to Taiwan at some time around 8,000 years ago. Evidence from historical linguistics suggests that it is from the Island of Taiwan that seafaring peoples migrated, perhaps in distinct waves separated by millennia, to the entire region encompassed by the Austronesian languages. It is believed that this migration began around 6,000 years ago.

(wikipedia.org).

Thus, the broad consensus at the present time is that the homeland of the Austronesians was in Taiwan. This homeland area may have also included the P’eng-hu (Pescadores) Islands between Taiwan and China and possibly even sites on the coast of mainland China, especially if the early Austronesians are regarded as a population of related dialect communities living in scattered coastal settlements.

Unfortuntely, the linguistic analysis of the Proto-Austronesian language stops at the western shores of Taiwan; any relationship to mainland language(s) is not known at the current time.

The current government of the Republic of China on Taiwan officially recognizes groups among the indigenous peoples based on qualifications drawn up by the Council of Indigenous Peoples.  Sixteen “people groups” have been recognized as of June, 2014.  Three additional people groups are “locally recognized”, and ten people groups are “unrecognized”  (Source: wikipedia.org) :

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LATEST PAGE UPDATE: JANUARY 16, 2021.
最後一次更新時間為:  2021/01/16.

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