侗人的食物與性別意象：從日常生活到婚姻交換

Food and Gender Images of the Kam in Guizhou, China

本文探討侗人如何從食物來認知並實踐其性別關係，以試圖說明侗族社會的基本文化特質為何。我從四個面向來分析：一、以性別分工作為切入點，從食物的生產、交換及消費等日常生活脈絡，來理解侗人如何實踐並建構其性別關係。二、以男女作伴團體及其婚前的社交活動作為主軸，討論女人所生產的花生如何成為作伴團體在「作玩」活動中傳遞情意的食物意象。三、在父系家屋與房族的脈絡下，分析食物禮物的生產如何透過婚姻交換的實踐來展演稻米／米飯的文化意涵──人的構成以及社會的再生產理想。四、從論述與儀式行動的範疇來分析食物與性別建構之關係，包括神話傳說、飲食及行為禁忌、以及儀式性的交換行動。從食物的生產、交換與消費，侗人賦予了男人與女人在空間──時間範疇上不同的象徵連結意涵：女人以種植於坡地上的「花生」來傳遞情感與情意，傳遞著跨越房族或村寨範疇的作伴團體參與「作玩」活動的意義；男人則以田所生產的「稻米／米飯」來表達「人的構成」以及「社會的再生產」之重要性，以父系家屋及房族作為共作與共食的單位。花生與稻米的差異，在於女人的「花生」意象可以共作、共食，但卻不可用來交換；反之，稻米／米飯卻是男人的家屋／房族進行婚姻交換時重要的食物禮物，具有將作為交換物的鯉魚「從生的轉換成熟的」特質，也用來餵養家屋所飼養的雞、鴨、豬等食物禮物，更是「人的構成」過程的主要物質，以男人與女人（或討妻者與給妻者）的共作來完成「人的構成」理想。除此之外，侗人亦以神話、侗歌、禁忌與儀式展演等論述與規範行動，來形塑並強化侗族社會的性別意象。在流傳的神話、傳說與古歌吟唱中，侗人建構了女人與雞、生育力的連結關係；男人及其父系房族祭拜村寨的祖母神之儀式行動，則是侗人以信仰及儀式來強化女人的重要性，尤其是女人所特有的轉化行動：社會的再生產力。

The Kam people of Guizhou, China construct their gender relationships in the contexts of food production, exchange, and consumption. After examining gendered work divisions to understand how the Kam practice everyday gender relationships, I discuss images of love and sentiment associated with peanuts, which are treated as “women's food.” Peanuts are usually produced by women in fields that are mostly segregated from those cared for by men, and are generally tended by individual women or women's groups. During courtship, peanuts are occasionally raised with male cooperation, thereby embodying images of play and of being “a guest” preceding marriage. During the period of marriage exchange, men (as wife-takers) regularly send portions of glutinous steamed rice to the women's clans until their first pregnancies and eventual transfer to male households. Rice, which is grown in “men's” fields, must be co-worked by men and women during the harvest season before wives move into their husbands' households. The harvest ritual expresses a sense of rice as the main substance for “the constitution of the person” as well as social reproduction. In this paper I also analyze such forms of discourse as myths and songs in addition to taboos and rituals to understand the construction of Kam food symbolism and gender image. In myths and ancient songs that are still performed today, the chicken is used as a symbol to express female social reproduction images, while men and their patrilineal groups make annual offerings of pork and steamed rice to local female deities in recognition of the significance of women's transformative power in ritual action.