胆（月曼）阿美族年齡組制度的研究與意義

THE STUDY OF AGE-SET SYSTEMS AND ITS THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS: A Taiwanese Case

本文以一個海岸阿美族部落的年齡組制度和年齡組織的研究，試圖指出向來研究該族年齡組織者多強調以「組」形成的型式結構，而乏於組織如何運作與維持的論述，因此無法探討以年齡組織做為基礎的統治機構之特性，以及該組織不但是部落具體象徵，也是銜接外在社會的機置等重要問題。其次，筆者透過與東非Gada型年齡制度的比較，提出「年齡」與「世代」兩原則的關係是為探討年齡制度和其他社會制度（尤其是親屬制度）關聯的關鍵，這樣的分析也可以說明阿美族親屬制度的諸些特徵和其親屬活動範圍的限制；而「從妻（母）居」的規則是和年齡組制度的運作可以相容。最後，「年齡」與「世代」原則關係的討論也使我們必須將年齡制度視為更大的社會制度的一環，而且採取一個結構的又具動態的觀點來探討社會；也使我們可以嘗試比較不同類型的年齡制度及其運作。撮言之，此文闡明了有關年齡理論性的探討必須視為理論性地研究社會的一環，反之亦是。

This article presents ethnographic data collected from an Amis village located on the eastern coast of Taiwan. It focuses on the nature and operation of the Amis age-set system and explores the theoretical implications of a revised view of the Amis age-set system. Previous studies of the Amis age-set system have overemphasized the formal structure of the system which is composed of hierarchically ranked age-sets. In the present study the author argues that investigating how the age organization actually operates internally not only helps us discover interconnections between this system and other villager's socio-cultural systems, but yields a more dynamic, processual approach to the entire society. To do this also requires that we understand the relationship between the age-set system and the life cycles of individual set members. This article's contribution can be summarized as follows: First, this ethnographic study offers an additional well documented to the anthropological literature on this topic. In particular it 1. demonstrates the prominent position of mama no kapah (sponsors of the youth grade) within the age-set system, 2. requires us to rethink how the power is distributed within the age organization, and 3. shows that not only is the age organization the key to the village's internal organization, but that it has mediated the village's relations with the outside society and with state organs ever since Japanese colonial rule. Secondly, instead of emphasizing the contrast between the age organization and the matrilocal (matrilineal) kinship system as a reflection of a male/female duality, the author, in making comparisons with East African Gade-type age systems, identifies the interaction between two principles of 'age' and 'generation' as the key to understanding the relationship between the age organization and other social systems. This finding may have implications for constructing a general framework within which different kinds of age systems, including age sets, age grades, graded age-sets, etc., can be compared. And, at least, from this new perspective we can reconsider the nature of the Amis kinship system and the limited functions that kin groups can perform. Finally, the discussion of the relationship between 'age' and 'generation' leads us to treat the age-set system as a part of a wider socio-cultural context and this implies that if a theory of age is a part of a theory of society, then the converse is also true.