英文摘要 |
Based on the “dialectical view of categorization and identification,” and adopting a “social categorization/group identification” set of concepts, the article discusses the importance of historical process, culture, and agency in shaping people’s identities through their traditions and making collective symbols.We suggest that residents of Da-chen islands, who were withdrawn and resettled in Taiwan in 1955 because of military operations, responded favorably and positively to the war regime and the category of “DachenYibao” (Dachen Righteous Compatriots) given by the State and the public in the 1950s and the 1970s. They even formed their own symbol for “Chiang Lord Worship” and practice. We explain why there was a revival of collective interest in traditional Dachen beliefs in the mid-1980s, and why the Chiang Kai-shek Worship receded, especially after the year 2000. In the meantime, we observe a gradualfading of the category of DachenYibao and its replacement with “Dachen Ren” (Dachen people). Through analyzing changing symbols-from the collective symbol of Chang Lord Worship to traditional symbols of Dachen belief-we interpret the meanings, interests, and social dignities of different social categories and identifications. We submit that the state, as an external force, can easily create social categories, and it is the people who give meanings to the categories and develop their own identities through rituals and symbols, recreating their own identities with religion and other social collective forces in relation to the external category because of environment and institutional changes that affect their existence and living conditions. |