Michael Rudolph 2008:

“Improvisation, Contingency, and Ambiguity: The Efficacy of Contemporary Ritual Performances of Taiwan’s Aborigines”.

In: Henn, Alexander & Klaus-Peter Köpping (eds) 2008, Qualifying Ritual In An Unstable World: Contingency – Embodiment – Hybridity. Hamburg/Münster/London: LIT, p.105-132.

Abstract

As all Taroko rituals were once in some way connected to the practice of head hunting, collective ritual was forbidden by the Japanese as early as in the beginning of the 20^th century. After the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, most Taroko became Christians. Since 1999, however, there could be observed strong endeavors to revitalize collective ‘ancestor-gods rituals’ in this Austronesian group that similarly to other aboriginal groups in Taiwan is confronted with severe cultural and social disintegration.

This contribution attempts to show how improvisation, contingency and ambiguity in contemporary Taroko ritual performances not only reflect, but also re-negotiate the psychological and social tensions in Taroko society. As these performances play an active role in post-colonial identity construction, they are much more than pure entertainment. Originally developed by Taroko elites as an instrument of authentication in order to get hold of governmental resources as a distinct ethnic group, the rituals soon also became a center of competition of different elites that all tried to exert their influence on Taroko society, i.e., educational elites, church elites, and political elites. Encouraged by an overarching Taiwanese nativism and by dominant Han society that propagated multiculturalism since the beginning of the 90s, these elites not only knew very well to channel the cultural resources of their ethnic group to their own advantage, but also started to reconstruct Taroko identity on the basis of their newly regained ethnic pride.

Keywords: Taiwan Aborigines, ritual efficacy, Taroko (Truku), nativism, identity construction