Transforming Tradition in Eastern Taiwan: Bunun Incorporation of Christianity in their Spirit Relationships
Date
2016
Authors
Fang, Chun-wei
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the history of religious beliefs and
practices among the Bunun people of eastern Taiwan after their
acceptance of Christianity at the end of the Second World War. I
describe the process of Christianisation among the Bunun people,
especially those who live in Hualien County, and investigate the
role of Christianity in the development of Bunun identity in
post-war and post-colonial Taiwan. Instead of seeing Christianity
as a ‘missionary imposition’, I follow the ways the Bunun
have actively adopted, interpreted, and modified both the
indigenous and Christian forms and ideas to meet their needs in
different periods. I argue, therefore, that the study of the
interactions of Christianity and indigenous religious beliefs and
practices should examine what makes some Christian ideas and
forms more amenable to adoption than others, and what the
determinant ones are.
The thesis demonstrates that Bunun conversion to Christianity has
been a complex process involving both continuity and
discontinuity. Continuity and change take place at the same time
and are interwoven. To gain a better understanding of the mutual
constitution of Christianity and Bunun culture, I suggest that we
approach this question by combining the exegetical and historical
perspectives. The intertwined trajectories of evangelisation,
Sinicisation, indigenisation, and urbanisation have deeply
influenced the articulation between Christian beliefs and
practices and indigenous ones. My argument is that the reason
most Bunun people desire to maintain continuity with their
pre-Christian ways, and the reason the minority refuse to do so,
derives not only from the appeals of Christianity but also from
their engagements with the ethnic, political, and cultural
politics of Taiwan that they have experienced from the end of the
Second World War to the present. The study of indigenisation is
not only to see what has changed or been preserved, an ongoing
interest among scholars, but also to focus on the articulation of
Christian and indigenous cultural elements at any given time
within the wider social and political environment in which the
Bunun are placed.
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Keywords
the Bunun People, Austronesian, Christianity, Religious Changes, Conversion, Taiwan
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Thesis (PhD)
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