英文摘要 |
It has been said that the so-called Thao Tribe (of Sun-Moon Lake) belonged to one of the branches of the Tsou Tribe (of Ali Shan). This perception had once spread not even among the aborigines in both the Sun-Moon Lake and Ali Shan areas but also Taiwan's general public. To clarify the complexities of the historical conception of 'Thao', this paper sets aside the academic contents of the 'Thao' in anthropological classifications, focuses on the process leading to the formation of the view that 'Thao as a branch of Tsou' during the period of Japanese rule.This article has demonstrated that during the Qing period when the concept of 'ethnic groups' had not yet emerged, it is clear that records on the Sun-Moon Lake area distinguished the socio-ethnic impression of that region from the Ali Shan area. In the Japanese period which began to formulate classifications of ethnic groups, the aborigines of the Sun-Moon Lake area also entered into a new stage of being classified. However, because of the different interpretations of various social members, the classification and understanding to the 'Thao' remained unclear, and different viewpoints prevailed. In other words, the view that 'Thao as a branch of Tsou' was not yet firmly established among both government and academic circles. The sources that viewed the Sun-Moon Lake indigenous people as a branch of the 'Tsou' actually came from the tourist industry which prospered during that period. In particular, the legend of 'tracing a white deer' first appeared in 1916, which was soon adapted into a wooden inscription 'On the Origin of the Cultivated Savages' about 1921. This process concretely stated the 'origin' of the aborigines in written form and introduced to tourists. Therefore, when anthropologists still disputing about the classifications of these Sun-Moon Lake aborigines, the general public and tourists had already contacted an explanation which had undergone several reinterpretations and could lead them believe that 'Thao as a branch of Tsou'. |