縱橫古今論傳說：李亦園院士的「神話與傳說」研究之回顧

Studying Legend from Past to Present: Review of Academician Yih-Yuan Li's Research on ＂Myth and Legend＂

神話（myth）與傳說（legend）可視為口傳文化、宗教信仰和儀式的一部分，也往往是社會記憶與族群歷史的一環。本文對李亦園院士在不同學術時期的神話與傳說研究進行回顧，目的是瞭解他將神話與傳說看成是超自然信仰的學術思想脈絡，以及所採用的跨學科理論架構和研究方法。本文從1950年代李亦園院士參與台灣南島民族的民族學田野調查的脈絡談起，討論他在神話和傳說研究上所強調的跨文化比較的觀點；也討論他於1960年代發展出結合心理學和人類學的跨學科角度，研究神話和傳說的價值體系，以及1980－1990年代漢人社會的「傳說和儀式」的結構人類學研究，並挑選他在每一時期的代表著作進行文本分析。筆者認為李亦園院士所強調的跨文化比較和跨學科合作是他在神話和傳說研究領域的重要學術思想，1960年代中期開拓出台灣學界的心理學與人類學的行為科學整合討論的研究風氣，神話和傳說研究可說是李亦園院士運用心理學的理論概念進行人類學研究之開端。他的傳說研究的對象從1950－1960年所關注的臺灣南島民族逐漸轉變為1980－1990年所關注的漢人社會，這也正是臺灣人類學在研究課題上的轉變過程，從南島民族研究延伸到漢人社會、海外華人社會的研究課題，也具體展現他在不同時期對跨文化比較、跨學科合作、社會變遷議題的看法。本文透過「神話／傳說做為族群歷史和社會記憶」、「神話／傳說成為價值體系」、「神話／傳說成為人類心靈的結構原則」三個不同學術時期的回顧與討論，揭示神話／傳說縱橫古今連結過去意涵與當代意涵，並從宗教信仰面向擴及世俗面向，透過李亦園院士的研究也顯示出人類學口傳文化的研究取向之轉變。這樣的轉變是面對政治、社會和文化變遷中的傳說文化所發展出的研究方法和理論架構，以及他帶給臺灣人類學界的一些重要啟發。 Myth and legend-a kind of oral culture-are not only considered part of religious beliefs and rituals but are also connected to social memory and ethnic history. This article reviews Academician Yih-Yuan Li's studies of myth and legend in different academic periods from the 1950s to the 1990s. The objective of the article is to underscore the ways in which Li developed interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks and research methods to analyze the versatile contexts of myth and legend as supernatural beliefs. This article begins with the review of his ethnographic fieldwork in Taiwan's Austronesian groups, and discusses his cross-cultural comparative perspectives in this research. It also examines his interdisciplinary approach in the 1960s to study the value systems of myth and legend by taking views and concepts from the disciplines of both psychology and anthropology, as well as his application of structural anthropological theory in the study of ＂legend and ritual＂ in the 1980- 90s. Through selecting Li's representative works and doing close textual analyses of them, this article suggests that cross-cultural comparative study and interdisciplinary perspectives were important academic thoughts demonstrated explicitly in Li's work. His research on myth and legend, I further argue, was the initial step in his academic career where he adopted psychological theories in doing anthropological research. In the trajectory of his career, the subjects of his research shifted from Taiwan's Austronesian peoples to Han societies. More broadly, such change exemplifies the transformations of the research topics in the discipline of Anthropology in Taiwan over time, starting from Austronesian study to Han study to the study of overseas Chinese societies. Within this background, this article specifically reviews and discusses three different stages of Li's research: ＂Myth/legend as ethnic history and social memory,＂ ＂Myth/legend as value system,＂ and ＂Myth/legend as structural rule of the human mind.＂ What is shown in his research is the connection of meanings of the past and the present as well as the intersection of the sacred and the secular. Also, his research shows the changes in anthropological approaches to the study of oral culture, as well as the methods and theoretical frameworks he used under the political, social and cultural transformations of oral culture. Tracing the academic contexts within which Li developed his thoughts and methods, this article shows some of the important ways in which his work inspired Taiwan Anthropology.