Abstract
Around the world, especially since the passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, indigenous people have hoped that advances in legal rights can help them gain recognition for their ecological knowledge and autonomy in the use of natural resources.
This chapter was previously published in Human Organization 72.3 (Fall 2013), pp. 220–229.
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Notes
- 1.
Taiwan's indigenous people, part of the Austronesian peoples of the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas, are currently classified into 14 officially recognized “tribes”. They have a fixed quota of seats in the Legislative Yuan, currently for six legislators. Their presence on Taiwan dates at least 6,000 years, whereas permanent Chinese settlement on the island began only in the seventeenth century.
- 2.
The park was first planned as the Tsugitaka-Taroko National Park in 1937 when Taiwan was part of Japan. Taroko is the Japanese pronunciation of Truku.
- 3.
The correct ethnonym was the subject of local debate. The Truku of Hualien were recognized in 2004 as an independent tribe. Other local factions advocated the name Sediq (meaning “human being”) incorporating the Truku, Tkedaya, and Teuda subgroups. Following local usage, this word is spelled as Sejiq in Truku, as Seediq in Tkedaya, and as Sediq in Teuda. The Council of Indigenous Peoples uses the Teuda spelling. The Sediq tribe was recognized in 2008. Individuals are free to register as members of either group at local household registration offices. In February 2013, there were 28,55 1 people registered as Truku and 8,412 as Sediq.
- 4.
For a full discussion of this history, within an anthropological analysis of state-indigenous relations in Taiwan, see Simon (2012a).
- 5.
The research for this article is based on nearly a decade of work with Truku hunters. First, I conducted 18 months of research in two Truku villages in Hualien and one Seediq village in Nantou from 2004 to 2007 and have subsequently made annual visits. In the summer of 2010, 1 conducted ethnobiological research in two villages, which permitted me to not only gather lists of local species but also to engage in conversations with hunters and accompany them to their traplines. In 2012 and 2013, I conducted six months of more traditional fieldwork, which included time spent high up in the mountains with local people.
- 6.
The Truku, like all other indigenous groups on Taiwan, were formerly known for headhunting. For a broad discussion of head-hunting among the Sejiq (Sediq), of which the Truku are a part, see Simon (2012b).
- 7.
Truku nationalists prefer to use the Japanese spelling Taroko in English documents, saying the word is already well-known due to the Taroko National Park and is inclusive of all three sub-groups (Truku, Tkedaya, and Teuda). The Council of Indigenous Peoples uses the spelling Truku, which is closer to local usage.
- 8.
This is a bit of an anachronism. In fact, the Musha rebellion was instigated by six villages of the different, yet closely related, Tkedaya group.
- 9.
According to Truku hunters, indigenous police officers are rarely Truku. They say the administration hires Amis people as police officers in a long-standing colonial practice of using some groups to oppress others.
- 10.
A comprehensive analysis of Truku Gaya can be found in the Ph.D. dissertation by Lin (2010).
- 11.
For a detailed study of Truku hunting practices, written by a Truku hunter, see Huang (2000).
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Simon, S. (2021). Of Boars and Men: Indigenous Knowledge and Co-Management in Taiwan. In: Shih, Sm., Tsai, Lc. (eds) Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan and Beyond. Sinophone and Taiwan Studies, vol 1. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4178-0_8
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