英文摘要 |
This paper explores the continuities and changes to the socialorder and public affairs in the contemporary age organizationamong the A’tolan Amis. The age organization among Amiscommunities is one of the core systems in Amis culture and society,some of which have been undergoing turmoil and disorganizationas changes from the outside world have been encountered. Thesesurviving systems have been transformed into annual rituals, dailysocial activities, and life ceremonies. However, as one of the corevalues in age organization, the social order and the subsequentoperation of public affairs among Amis communities haveencountered a new condition within struggles. In A’tolan, the ageorganization ritual has been revived since the mid-1990’s; inparticular, the revived younger generation has strongly resistedgovernment sponsored tourism projects on their home land and hasattempted to negotiate solutions based on their ethnic identity andthe concept of protecting their home village. However, due to theinequality of the power and resources between the government andthe age organization, the restrictions of the law, the politicalsystems of the State, the internal communications within the ageorganization itself became difficult, encountering generational gapconflicts and different personal ideas. These struggles are a signthat the A’tolan Amis is going to be re-marginalized. In this paper,I argue that the age organization has to be understood not onlyfrom the socio-cultural perspective but also as an historical processwith contemporary struggles so that it has chance to negotiateboth with external society and the internal community to developan age organization representing the social order, the principle ofpublic affairs, and the practice of protecting the home villages so asto find a solution from just mere identity to actual practice amongthe Amis communities. |