Aborigines of Taiwan

The Puyuma: From Headhunting to the Modern World

Josiane Cauquelin

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781134494231
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia dell'Asia

Based on extensive field research over a period of twenty years, this is the first comprehensive study of the Puyuma people of Taiwan. The Puyuma belong to the Austronesian peoples, which today number less than 370, 000. In Taiwan, they are the least known of the aboriginal groups, numbering only 6000, and inhabiting the Southeastern province of Taitung. The study looks at the historical changes in the status and definition of these people in relation to the central state, the criteria by which people determine their own ethnic identity, and the evolution of that identity through history. The increasing awareness in the West of the importance of ethnic relations makes this an especially timely book.

1
THE PUYUMA

Linguistics

The Austronesian (AN) family is assumed to divide into two primary branches, Formosan and non-Formosan. The estimated 900 to 1,200 non-Formosan AN languages belong to a single enormous subgroup, known as ‘Malayo-Polynesian’ (MP). Within the MP subgroup the fundamental split separates Western MP (WMP: Philippines, western Indonesia, mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and Palau and the Marianas of western Micronesia), from Central-Eastern MP (CEMP: eastern Indonesia, Melanesia, Micronesia except as qualified above, Polynesia). By far the most important CEMP subgroup is Oceanic, comprising over 450 languages in coastal New Guinea and the insular Pacific (Blust 1995: 458). The Austronesian languages therefore have a geographical distribution that is relatively unbroken, except for the outliers in Madagascar and Southern Vietnam.

The existence of a language family that extends over much of tropical Asia was recognised by 1600 by the Dutch navigators who commented on the striking similarity of Malagasy to Malay. For the Austronesian languages, Hadrien Reland (1706) had noted resemblances between languages as far removed geographically as Malagasy, Malay and Futunian, using lists of words collected in 1616 in Futuna, a small island in western Polynesia, by the Dutch voyager Jacob Le Maire. In 1834, William Marsen extended the comparison to Polynesian languages as a whole, as far as Easter Island. In 1838, Wilhelm von Humboldt proposed ‘Malayo-Polynesian’ for the collection of languages in his work Über die Kawi Sprache auf der Insel Java (1836–9). In 1899 the Austrian linguist and ethnologist Wilhelm Schmidt suggested ‘Austronesian’ (‘southern islands’).

This language has already been the subject of a detailed study,¹ but we will provide a brief summary here. Ferrell (1969) compiled a vocabulary of the languages of Taiwan. He divided them into three groups: Atayalic, Tsouic and Paiwanic. The Atayalic group includes Atayal and Sediq; the Tsouic group includes Tsou, Kanabu and Saaroa; and the Paiwanic group is divided into two subgroups, of which Paiwanic I subsumes Rukai, Pazeh, Saisiat,

Table 1.1 Lexicostatistical correlations between the languages of Taiwan

Thao, Paiwan and Puyuma, and Paiwanic II subsumes Bunun, Siraya, Amis, Kuvalan and Yami. For Ferrell this distinction is based on the fusion of the proto-Austronesian phonemes *t*C in the Paiwanic II subgroup. These two phonemes are likewise merged in the other Austronesian languages of the Pacific. Ferrell believes subgroup II to be closer to the languages of the other peoples of the Insulindian area than subgroup I.

The Puyuma language correlates with the Atayalic group at an average of 14 per cent, with the Tsouic group at one of 20 per cent and with the Paiwanic group at an average varying from 21 per cent for the Bunun language to 31.3 per cent for the Paiwan language. The two Amis languages and Rukai follow very closely, with averages of 29.9 and 29 per cent respectively. In the village of Puyuma, the young people under 30 years of age do not speak the language of their ancestors at all, their education having been entirely in the Chinese language. The generation between the ages of 30 and 60 speaks Puyuma and Chinese, whereas the very old speak Puyuma peppered with Japanese expressions.

Dyen (1971b: 174) drew up the table of lexicostatistical correlations between the various languages of Taiwan shown in Table 1.1.

Where certain conventional grammatical terms have been retained here, this does not mean that the Puyuma phenoma to which they refer necessarily correspond closely to those that are designated by them in the English language. Certain constructions that appear to be verbal constructions are in reality nominal constructions. The most common affixes are listed in Table 1.2. The possibilities of word formation through the addition of affixes are unlimited, and it was easy for me to generate words that surprised my hosts, because, while they might be grammatically correct, one seldom hears them used.

Table 1.2 Consonants

Phonology

Consonants

p/, /t/,/k/ are voiceless stops. /l/ is a retroflex alveolar, but in some informants it sounds very much like the phoneme /l/ and in others it resembles more the phoneme /r/. Nevertheless, there are three distinct phonemes, as every informant points out the difference between them: ‘tooth’ /wali/, ‘day’ /wari/, ‘time’ /wa Li/.

The problem of /s/ and /f/ is of only limited occurence, for we encounter it only in the case of the two vowels /i/ and /u/ (before or after). For example: ‘to stink’ /a Nsis/ [a NFi F ], ‘peanut’ /radis/ [radi F ], ‘loin-cloth’ /pakusis/ [paku Fi F ], ‘to fool’ /mabusus/ [mabu Fu F ], ‘breast’ /susu/ [ Fu Fu]. In these contexts, we may be tempted to interpret it as a realisation of /s/. Nevertheless, the following examples show that this realisation is not systematic and that /s/ is attested as well in /ku Di F/radi F/ and /kesis/paku Fi F/. I therefore consider /f/ as a phoneme. The seventeen consonants are to be found in initial, intervocalic and final positions and may be preceded and followed by any vowel i, u, a.

Vowels

/u/ /o/: [o] often appears as a variation of /u/. According to the informant, one may hear either [Katipol] or [Katipul], [tanero] or [taneru], or in the final position, the diphtong /aw/ [ao]. In a very few words, such as the name /Labo/ or the plant ‘ramie’ /kerio/, one only hears [o].

Table 1.3 Vowels

Very often, in a CCV structure, we find a non-phonemic [e] inserted, namely CvCV; for example, ‘strong’ /arke D/ [areke D], ‘to ventilate’ /kurbaba Li/ [kur Ebaba Li]. For the specific example of ‘brothers’ /marwadi/, I have heard from my informants the pronunciation [marewadi_mariwadi_maruwadi], with the addition of a non-phonemic [e] [u] or [i]. In the vowel sequences [ia], [ua], [ui], [ai], each vowel is syllabic; for example, ‘guava’ /kuliabes/ [kuliŒabes], ‘habit’ /kakuayanan/ [kakuŒayanan], ‘to overflow’ /muipa N/ [muŒipa N], ‘aged people’ /maida N/ [maŒida N]. Nevertheless, when the second vowel of the sequence is a high vocoid, in rapid speech the sequence may realized as a diphthong, e.g. ‘aged people’ /maida N/ [maŒida N_maida N], ‘beautiful’ /bu Lai/ [bu LaŒi_bu Lai], ‘east’ /Lau D/ [LaŒu D _Lau D]. In the VV structure, we find the insertion of a glottal stop, e.g. sa/a D, bu/ir.

The glottal stop occurs in initial, intervocalic and final positions.

The stress is always on the last syllable, and has no phonological value. But vocalic length with expressive value is found in the penultimate syllable. This syllable may be very long in speech to indicate distance in time or space or for the sake of emphasis. Examples are ‘yesterday’ /adaman/, ‘day before yesterday’ /ada.man/, ‘past’ /ada....man/, ‘here’: /kadiu/, ‘there’ /kadi.u/, ‘further away’ /kadi.....u/.

Morphology

It is not possible, here, to list all the affixes (see Cauquelin 1991b, c). B is a predicate that is not inflected through the addition of an infix, a prefix or a suffix; such bases never appear in this uninflected form in conversation. They can be translated by either a verb or a nominal form.

Noun-forming affixes

B + /-an/, is a very frequently used affix, denoting:

duration: ami-an ‘during the year’, < ami ‘year’
location in space: i-enay-an ‘river bank’, < enai ‘water’
plural: maida N-an ‘old person’, < maida N ‘old people’
generic: ba Nsar-an ‘class of marriageable men’, < ba Nsar ‘virile’

/-in-/ + B denotes a thing resulting from a particular action:

d-in-awai ‘human being’, < dawai ‘body’

/-in-/ + B + /-an indicates where something is (i.e. an action has taken place):

d-in-apal-an ‘footprints’, < dapal ‘foot’

< p-en-uar-an ‘running away from places’, < puar ‘run away’

Following a labial consonant, the infix /-in-/ becomes /-en-/. I have never encountered any other allomorphs.

/ka-/ + B + /-an/ indicates the principle of, emphasis, the archetype:

ka-ruma/-an ‘ancestor cult house’, < ruma ‘house’

/mar-/ [e],[u],[i] + B designating a relation between:

mar-kataguin ‘spouses’, < kataguin (‘husband or wife’) mar-temama ‘father and son’, < temama ‘father’

This affix is no longer ‘active’, and is limited to some examples.

/re-/ + reduplicated B + /-an/ denotes one who does frequently or habitually or has a lot of:

re-Taka Takaw-an ‘incurable thief ’, < Takaw ‘to steal’

re-walawalak-an ‘one who has many children’, < walak ‘child’

Verb-forming affixes

/are-/ + B + reduplication of B or of S2 and S3 means ‘to have the odour of ’:

disyllabic: reduplication of B are-Ta/i Ta/i ‘to smell of excrement’, < Ta/i ‘excrements’

trisyllabic: reduplication S2 and S3

are-tomaku-maku ‘to smell of tobacco’, < tomaku ‘tobacco’

/ki-/ + B means ‘to get, to obtain’:

ki-kuraw ‘to fish’, < kuraw ‘fish’

/ki-/ + B means ‘to do to oneself ’:

ki-beray ‘to be given by’, < beray ‘to give’

/kar-/ + B designates ‘two persons performing the same action’:

kar-na/u ‘to look together’, < na/u ‘to look at’

/kur-/ + B means ‘to perform an action with’:

kur-Ta/epa ‘to sleep with’, < Ta/ep ‘to lie down’

/pa + ka-/ + B is causative, meaning ‘to bring something into the state of ’:

paka-kua Lu N ‘to make sick’, < Lu N ‘epidemic’

This prefix is made up of two prefixes, the causative /pa-/ and the future /ka-/. An appropriate translation would be ‘what will be done’.

These prefixes are used daily, except for /are-/, which the Puyuma always use in fun, e.g. arete Dekte Dek < te Dek ‘buttock’, and means ‘to have a bad smell’.

Stative verb-forming affixes

/-al-/ + B means ‘having the sound of . . .’:

p-al-etik ‘the sound of splashing water or of popping rice’, < petik ‘to splash, to pop’

When the initial consonant is /t/ in an onomatopoeic, it becomes /s/ in the new form, e....

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Maps
• Figures
• Plates
• Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1: The Puyuma
• 2: The Village
• 3: Gods and Men
• 4: Birth and Death
• 5: Family Horizons
• 6: Dual Organisation and Age-System
• 7: Shamans
• 8: Material Civilisation
• 9: The Aborigines in Taiwan Today
• Appendix 1: Myth of the Origin of the People of Katipul
• Appendix 2: Legend of the Division of the Land
• Appendix 3: Legends Told by the Amis: Kiwit’S War Against the Puyuma
• Appendix 4: Story Told by Valikai, A Katipul1
• Appendix 5: Legend Narrated by Taylor
• Appendix 6: Patintin Song
• Appendix 7: Chronology of the Investitures
• Notes
• Bibliography