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Michael Rudolph 2000:‘Ethnic Power’ or ‘Counter-Hegemonic Presbyterian Aboriginality’? The influence of Taiwan’s Presbyterian Church on the ethnicity of Taiwan's Aborigines(English abstract of German language article "‘Ethnic Power’ oder ‘gegenhegemoniale presbyterianische Aboriginalität'? Der Einfluß der Presbyterianischen Kirche Taiwans (PCT) auf die Ethnizitätsbildung taiwanesischer Ureinwohner“. Published in: Ruhr-Universität Bochum: Cathay Scripten Nr.17, 2000).Findings
of Taiwanese anthropologists suggest that the aboriginal movement that evolved
during the first half of the 1980s had largely been a result of
self-generating, indigenous forces: Continuous discrimination and stigmatization as `uncultivated mountain compatriots` (shanbao) and
non-recognition of their status as `aborigines` (yuanzhumin) eventually caused a
growing number of young educational elites within
aboriginal society to take to protest; the church and the political opposition
played an important role as supporters in this process; ideologically, these elites were strongly influenced by the nativism
of the oppositional movement in Taiwan (Xie Shizhong 1987a;b;1992a; Xu Muzhu 1990;1991). What these
studies do not mention, however, is the strong impact of Presbyterian church
ideology on aboriginal elites especially during the
first years of the movement – a fact that is revealed by people who worked
inside the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (PCT) or who are in close contact with
it (Stainton 1995). In this paper, I describe how the
PCT spread its ideological influence into aboriginal society since the end of
Japanese colonial rule. The indigenization (bendihua) of this
church since the late 1960s not only served the protection of aboriginal
cultural traditions and thus layed an important
foundation of the taiwanization
(bentuhua)
of the 1990s, but also strongly determined ethnicity formation within elite
strata of aboriginal society. Keywords: Taiwan aborigines; Presbyterian Church; indigenization; taiwanization; aboriginal elites; liberation theology; aboriginal land rights movement; religious & ethnic identity.
Sanzan at the Eastcoast near Hualian. In the middle of the picture: the building of the Presbyterian Church
Presbyterian Church Building of the Dawu-people on Orchid Island |
