英文摘要 |
Matriarchal society of the Puyuma people endows upon women a dominant position in kinship, family, and rituals. Nevertheless, many studies have shown that within the traditional Puyuma culture, men still take on important roles. The Puyuma men have to follow a rigid Age System and receive educational and military training (e.g. takuvan) at different stages, which signify their maturing into adulthood. The different roles of the two genders and how they cooperate and complement each other in rituals are issues to be investigated in this paper. Observing the gender roles in rituals and the ceremonial songs, the author finds that there is a distinction in the parts assigned to men and women but both male and female carry out tasks and missions and are thus both essential. Take the rite of procreation as an example; we can observe an exchange of dominant roles between the two sexes. In the rituals before Harvest rite, including tematu'us, misahur, and muhamut which are related the production of millet, the main performers are women because they shoulder the responsibility of farming; while those after the harvest, the rites focus on the passage from childhood to manhood by entering takuvan to begin their training. Related rites like muvasiva, and mangayaw are mainly performed by men to enact the maturation procedure as they take on the responsibility to protect their homes and declare their territories. From the point of view of performers in certain rituals, it seems that women assume dominant roles while men play secondary parts. Nonetheless, when we examine the rituals of the whole year, we find that the two sexes complement and support each others in cyclical turns. Ceremonial songs operate in similar manner with the rituals of New Year and that of the Harvest serving as the juncture when the hierarchy of gender roles is shifted. Whereas songs are sung exclusively by women in rituals during the period between New Year Ritual and Harvest Ritual, like misahur and muhamud; songs, like pai'ira'iraware, by men in rituals during the period between Harvest Ritual and New Year Ritual, including takuvan, muvasiva, and mangayaw. The cycle of ritual is symbolic of the cycle of life, which is to be celebrated through chants annually. Based upon a field research conducted from 2009 to 2014, this study investigates the gender roles of Puyumas people at Pinaski of Taiwan in the annual rituals by discussing the purposes, missions, social functions, symbolic meanings and the gender-specific implications in ceremonial songs. |