Transforming Tradition in Eastern Taiwan: Bunun Incorporation of Christianity in their Spirit Relationships

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.