關於祀壺信仰的一個假設

A hypothesis for the belief in ritual bottles

祀壺信仰多年來已是西拉雅族傳統文化的代表，這種信仰的維持與祭典活動也是族人文化傳承的重心，本文針對荷屬東印度公司留下的文獻，以及荷蘭人對福爾摩沙先民生活與文化活動的紀錄進行分析，希望找到關於祀壺信仰在荷蘭時代便已出現的相關記錄。然而根據1620年代初期的民族誌記錄，以及對蕭壠社福爾摩沙人信仰與家居的描述，均未找到關於祀壺的任何記載，本文相信這種祀壺信仰出現時間必晚於荷蘭時期。而因其分布的範圍與荷蘭人傳教重點區域有所重疊，因而推論此一信仰形式仍受某些荷蘭文化因素影響而逐步發展成型。本文提出一個假設，就是在先民傳統多神信仰對水崇拜的基礎上，受荷蘭牧師施洗之象徵意義的影響，先民以17世紀大量流入臺灣的安平壺做為容器盛水，在大量接觸漢人偶像崇拜的信仰形式後，學習漢人的方式，在臺灣西南部荷蘭統治的主要區域內，先民村社間產生模仿與學習，進而逐漸發展出這種特殊的地方性信仰。

This paper examines the Dutch East India Company's(VOC) documentation of the culture and lives of the Formosan ancestors in the hope of finding records of ritual bottles belief that date back to the Dutch rule period. However, the early 1620s ethnographic records and the descriptions about Formosan people’s houses in the Houamimigh(蕭壠) do not reveal any evidence of the ritual bottle belief, leading me to believe that this kind of religion must have emerged later than the Dutch rule period, but because its distribution overlapped with the Dutch missionary focus, I conclude that it was still influenced by certain Dutch factors that led to its development. This paper analyzes several related factors, and concludes with a hypothesis that the Siraya people developed this religion in ritual bottle because of their traditional polytheistic belief and the worship of water, combined with the symbolic significance of the baptismal believers in the missionary process of the Dutch priests, led the ancestors to use the Anping bottle, which came to Taiwan in large numbers in the 17th century. And finally were influenced by the idolatrous forms of Chinese beliefs, which eventually developed ritual bottle belief in the main area of Dutch rule period in southwest Taiwan.