Made in Paridrayan: Sound, Land, and Movement in Indigenous Taiwan

Abstract

Employing methodologies and theoretical approaches from the fields of anthropology, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, folkloristics, and indigenous knowledge, this thesis explores the role and significance of landscape, sonic production and identity-making within a mountainous indigenous (Paiwan) community known as Paridrayan, located in present-day Taiwan. In 2009, the community was relocated away from their ancestral land, denying them the sights and sounds of the environment that generations of residents have grown accustomed to. This led to a detachment from their current dwelling and a longing to return home. The Paiwan consists of two sub-groups: the Ravar and the Vuculj. Paridrayan is known as the progenitor of the Ravar, from which other Ravar communities descended. Today, many Paridrayan elders, who are custodians of knowledge traditions, are in their late seventies and eighties and thus, there is an urgency to preserve and document their knowledge before it is lost. Existing research focuses largely on the Vuculj, and only a handful look specifically at the Ravar. In Anglophonic research, there are even lesser mentions of the Ravar and very few have focused on sonic production.

The original contribution of this thesis is threefold. First, it aims to preserve the oral traditions of the Ravar by recording the wisdom of village elders for the community and the wider audience. Second, I engage in a Paridrayan-centric ethnography that reveals the richness of Ravar culture by focusing on its point of origin. Finally, to lay the groundwork for future research on the Ravar culture and to repudiate misinformation. The Paiwan, like many other Austronesian-speaking societies, do not have a written script and possesses an oral tradition that is used as the primary tool for knowledge transmission. Therefore, studying sonic production is the most ideal approach to understanding how the community maintains their traditions amidst a globalised world. My analysis juxtaposes sonic production with everyday life. I explore the role of silence in mourning rituals; materiality in instrument-making; infinity in vocal singing; and movement in a storytelling genre known as tjautsiker. Landscape features as a common theme throughout the discussions in this thesis. It is a confluence point that always leads back to the soils of Paridrayan where one can be both here and there at the same time. Show more