How to Deal with Aboriginal Culture-Ancient Champa as an Example

How to Deal with Aboriginal Culture-Ancient Champa as an Example

本文所要探討的個案是占婆與印度文化之間的關係如何界定，以及如何看待占婆本土信仰等問題。占婆是南島語系民族建立於越南中南沿岸的文化古國，就族群與語言而言為馬來人種，故其分散式政治空間的組合方式為馬來波利尼西亞政體之表現。這種政治文化不同於大陸型集中政權體制，或可稱為分散式海上游牧主義。因其所處地理位置，占婆自古以來便受到外來文明相當顯著的影響，中國當然是其中之ㄧ，不過這跟印度文化在占婆所居顯赫地位相比，顯然遜色不少，從公元二世紀出現在歷史舞台到十四、五世紀，占婆一直受到印度文化（包括印度教與佛教）深刻的影響。法國文化史家則以印度化來稱呼諸如占婆等中南半島各地的印度文化傳承之跡。法國文化史家Mus 對占婆文明之印度化之事提出進一步論述，認為這是因為整個古代亞洲，包括占婆與印度，在宗教文化上都普遍存在著一種叫泛靈主義思想之故。泛靈主義使得占婆本土信仰能與印度文化在深層之處互通有無，進而巧妙地將外來文化融合於其中。然而，泛靈主義真可以說明清楚占婆的本土信仰嗎？本人以為若不回到文化時空脈絡上來談個別相關之具體問題，便容易成為一種全稱式的文化化約論述。因此，就占婆文化而論，吾人之出發點應該是從其所立身的海上游牧主義來著手而非在定義鬆散之泛靈主義上來做文章。

The example that I expound in this essay is ancient Champa (占婆). Champa is a general term for the polities organized by Austronesian-speaking people along the central and southern coast of Vietnam. The peoples of Champa are Malay in terms of ethnicity and language. Their organization of political space is an expression of Malayo-Polynesian polity. Maritime nomadism is the traditional Malayo-Polynesian culture from which the political authority derived.Because of its geographical location, Champa has been exposed to the influence of foreign cultures since early times. China is certainly one of them. However, Chinese influence here remains minor in comparison with Indian cultural expansion. Historians often termed Indianization as the widespread transmission of Indian culture, both Hinduism and Buddhism in many parts of Southeast Asia. Champa is one of the outstanding examples of Indianization in this area.Mus employs Champa as an example to give a graphical depiction of Indianization. He uses animism to depict the indigenous religious cults in Champa and argues that animism is an ancient pan-Asian phenomenon which makes harmonious cultural synthesis between Indian and indigenous cults in Champa possible. In response to his thesis, I argue that animism is a reductionist way of grasping indigenous cultures. We should interpret indigenous cultures in their proper context so that broad local dimensions are readily discernable. In case of Champa, what we should start with is maritime nomadism rather than animism.