Chapter 1 The Homeland of the Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan With Linguistic Evidence as the Basis of the Argument ' |. Introduction ‘The languages spoken by Taiwan's Austronesian, or Malayo-Pol , Austronesian boasts the broadest umber of languages with es| led the same place their hor ymeland of the Austronesi ines have attempted to pinpoint from a number ore have be ms between archeoloy formation of new theor PrtOne Origisandatgrion 24 (ee China, Others have cited evidence provided by that the homeland of the A\ down to New and Sumatra, Even Micronesia has been suggested, based on any established theory. This essay ading us to the most logical answer for where the Austronesians originated Il. Theories on the homeland of the Austronesians 1, Micronesia According to C-B. Fox (1947:59), original Austronesians are the ancestors of the modern-day Polynesians ... but where they came from is unknown, MacMillan Brown may have been right when he said the homeland of the Austronesians was Micronesia. After the land sank or became submerged they began to migrate to the wes and fi pothesis has no ba: ‘As Dyen remarked, the only thing of value i that Austronesians may have migrated outward from a central point: le of the Pacific (Dyen 1971 heories as late as the 1950! to the Fox's theory is the idea Micronesia, in the t's strange to think that people were sti s.Linguistics 101 Homeland Homeland refers to the place where tha Austronesians lived before they ‘were separated — when they were the same people and spoke the same language. I's possible that they had already formed separate tribes and locts, but this all took place on their native gol, before and populating new places. Homeland may also fe land, birthplace, or place of origin, 2. ing Chunsheng - China Previously in 1940, Ling Chunsheng in his essay “An Introduction to the Ancient Culture of Southeast Asia” ((#UREEH ESCH NL) proposed a brave new theory: culture was not limited to the peninsulas and islands also extended into the Chinese mainland, arriving in s the [Indochinese] peninsula, then making its way north to the Yangtze River basin, continuing on past the river to reach as far north as the Huai River and Qi traversing central and he distribution of ancient Indonesian 1g Mountains. They arrived from the east by boat, wuthern China and then west to Yunnan Province and Burma, going as far as Assam in In looked for evidence of the ancient Southeast Asians in Chinese historical records. He found their ‘names in accounts of ancient history, and in the same essay determined that, “based on historical accounts of ancient China, the groups representing the ancient culture of Southeast Asia were the Bai-Yuo CF i) in southeastem China, and the Bai-Pu (EWR) in southwestern China, later referred to as the Bo-Lao 8830). In ancient China the Yue and Pu Ps They were called by many different names over the centuries: Yue (i) ples were given the collective prefix Bai (Fi, meaning one hundred) FartOne OrigheandManton 23 ‘per in the Spring and Autumn Period; Yang-Yue (fi2) during the Warring States; Ou-Yue (Will), Min-Yue (Hi), Nan-Yue (88) and Luo-Yue (BRi82) during the Han Dynasty; and in the Three Kingdoms there were the Shan-Yue The Bai-Yi a, including modern-day Vietnam and the Chinese provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi ~ possibly Anbui and ‘Hunan Province as wel Ja), who lived in the mountains of nine regions CEB). ed across a broad swathe of southern and southeastern When this new theory came out it caused quite a stir among Chinese and Japanese ethnologists, In 1952 he pul Peoples in Fujian and Guangdong and the Formasan Natives” (74% FEBLA SEG HL IED) — in which he clarified his argument further: “The indigenous tribes of Taiwan were not part of the Malay “Ancient ished another essay as Torti has claimed. In ancient times they were one in the same with the Miao ing south of the Yangtze in Mi a larger ethnic group collectively known as the Yue-Pu (i8#8, or Yue- ‘Lao (24%) - the Indonesians and Malays of today, In ancient times, the people who lived along the southeastern coastline of China were called Bai-Yue (( peopl ina, and belonged to ji); and those dispersed across the mountainous areas of jed Bai-Pu CF indigenous, tribes belonged to the Bai-Yue. They left the mainland early on and took , after which they became completely isolated, hence the sustainability of their particular languages and cultures. The ing from the north: the Han, Dai, Miao, Yao, Tibetan and Burmese. Some have since been completely assimilated; others have adopted the lan; southwestern China were c f). Taiwan up residen Yue and Pu who remained began to mix with Sino-Tibetans lage [of the assimilator} while retaining traits particular to ancient Southeast Asian culture such as tattoos, tooth avulsion, depilatory habits, jew's| 24 Thee an.agen8 ‘Maton ofthe Fomoran tet hatp, tunics, waist looms, paternal naming, headhunting, worship of soul, indoor burials, hanging coffins, etc. ~ these can all be found in the tribes of southwestem China. Based on the above and studi -s of the cultural traits of ancient Southeast Asian culture, it an be in the distant past, the majority of Taiwanese abori ‘over from Mainland China, or that the entire Malay ethn southward from the Asian mainland to id that, at some point made their way group migrated ‘outh China Sea Islands, ‘Ling relies on cultural traits and past accounts of ancient history (ing) ) written by Shen Ying (£28), coastal provinee governor of Eastem Wu, in the beginning of the 3rd century ~ to prove that “Taiwanese aborigines and primarily Ure Seaboard Geographic Gazetteer the ancient Min-Yue are of the same cultural h As to the academic debate regarding Ling Ch found to support it the have already adopted sheng's theory, if nese will have a few scholars in CI theory as the when viewed from a purely certain arguments be y apparent. transferrable, Just because two groups share similar cultural traits does not mean they are ethnicall ethnicity, culture and language is intricate; i's not as simple as A equals B. Secondly, within what Ling Chunsheng calls Southeast Asia exist a number of different language families and ethnic groups: Aust o-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman); and the Ti (including the Hlai) among others. Diversity and complexity define the the same. The relationship among atic, Austronesian and Si and Kadai ethnic 's southwest border with yups and languages foun ‘Vietnam, Burma, Laos and Thailand, and yet Ling has lumped them all together as “the people of ancient Southeast Asian culture” or the “Yue~ ong Chi a are today’s Austronesians, why not include ethnic groups in South Asia, or today's Vietnamese for that matter? He hasn't provided any archeological or linguistic evidence, or anything with real substance, to back his theory hardly a convincing argument. And finally, asserting that the Mainland China in ancient times an natives migrated from iming that the entire Malay ited south from the Asian mainland, are two di and ethnic group mi ‘matters entirely and should not be mentioned in the same breath. Linguistics 101 ‘Yue-Liao culture Ling Chun China as Jed ancient Southeast As! Southeast ure in Chi categorize: ‘S#8) for tho culture along the southeast coast of China, and Pu-Lao (238) for that in southwestern China, Yue-Lao (iit) being the aggregate term. The pres descendants of the Yue-Lao ate, fr the lowor Kam in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomou of Hunan and Guizhou; the Sui Provi and Kawa residing along the border between Bur ‘ovince. These ethnic groups {groups such as the Miao-¥ao, Luo and Baiyi once came into contact and ted with the Yue-La0 culture, and have retzined certain Yu cultural traits up to the presont day." ((ERISEASCICHSRREA,) , 1955)26 's argument is pliusible in one respect: the trip to Taiwan is, land China \dochinese Peninsula or New much shorter and easier from the Guinea, If the consensus of the average scholar is right — please see the following section for those maintaining that Austronesian culture originated on the Indo — then it is possible that some of the Proto-Austronesians lived along the southeast coast of modern-day Chi ‘27’ latitude, Ling Chunsheng's assertion that the Austronesians migrated om e Yangtze River basin, ‘on past the river to reach as far north as the Huai River and Qinling “Mountains,” would seem to be going a bit too far. , roughly below 23 ards to ntinuing If Ling is correct and all of Taiwan's ethnic minorities lived south of the Yangtze in ancient times, then some of the Austronesians from ‘Mainland China must have migrated to is in the Philippines or Indonesia, for instance. It is also possible that some ands other than Taiwan: islands of Taiwan's \digenous groups came other than China, It's too easy to say that the entire indigenous popu of Taiwan came from the Chinese mainland. The results of linguistic, anthropological and archeological research done over the past few decades has affirmed the tribes compri heterogeneity and complexity of the different indigenous population, 3. Kern - Indochinese Peninsula According to McFarland and Tsuchida (1976:60), there are at least three methods for determining the homeland of a language family based gu ) Linguistic paleontology (e.g. Scherer 1968); 2) Language distribution and migration theory (e.g. Dyen 1956); and 3) ‘Toponomy (e.g. Krahe 1954). on c evident Rudolf Kern used linguistic paleontology in an essay written in Dutch in 1889 ~ Taalkundige gegevens ter bepaling van het stamsland der Maleisch-Polynesische volken — republished in 1917 in a Kern's essays. It is a seminal work, and an off-quoted source in anything related to the question of where the Austronesians originated, Shibusawa lection of Moto did a Japanese translation in 1958. Shigeru the essay into English in 1966, but it wasn't until revised the translation ten years later that it was formal suchida translated fis D. McFarland published. Kem pointed out that, when researching the homeland of the ‘Austronesians, one can find evidence in local especially those that can only be comparison of more than one hundred Austronesian languages spread nt and animal groups, wund-in certain climates. He did a across a large atea, and by way of an etymological reconstruction of Proto-Austronesian found words for plants such as sugarcane, coconut, banana, bamboo (four different species), and rattan (or reed) ~ all tropical. Kern inferred from this evidence that the homeland of the Austronesians is in the tropi Kern then took this argument further by citing words in Proto- ind diy field the lexis of eastern [Oceanic] * Austronesian languages, Austronesian related to rice ~ rice plant, husked ri that are not inferring from this that the homeland of the Austronesians must be somewhere in Bast Asia, the 1¢ people of Oceania did not know of rice u rival of the Europeans, There are also some 88 conspicuous plants in Proto-Austronesiani ge and small variety), pandanus, wild yam root, nettle, taro and fish poison (1 ‘The Proto-Austronesians brought knowledge of such pl homeland to wherever they took up residence next, These plant names foliate jewelvine) to name, ts from their have been passed down through the generations to the present day. In order to prove that a given plant name is from Proto-Austronesian, it must exist not only in two different languages spoken today, but also the ‘wo languag ed. Upon viewing the names of animals in Proto-Austronesian it be distantly re becomes readily apparent that the ancient Austronesians lived by the animals such as shark, squid (or cuttlefish), to crayfish), and goby (or ray) are the same across the entire Austronesi region. Other evidence has shown that the Proto-Ausironesians not only lived by the sea, but were also a seafaring people ~ one of the main sea; words for (or reasons why they are now spread across such a large area. Words in this category include boat, sail and oar, Proto-Austronesian also has words for mosquito, fly, louse, nit, moth, spider, rat, dog, boar, hen and heron. ‘These animals can be found almost anywhere and so cannot help us to pinpoint an exact location. It is very possible that the Proto-Austronesians had knowledge of water buffalo [carabao] in the Philippines, maybe even cows. These two types of animals are of the same genus, and as such a tanguages of Fiji and Molucea Islands but are used as an appellative for This gives us even more reason to believe that the homeland of the Austronesians was to the west. ly related. Cognates of “water buffalo” can be found in the There is a fascinat ics that uses reconstruc! s particular - to n. This type has been applied results. Linguistic ing Talwan). Even better evidence is found in the word for crocodile, which made it as far as the eastern half of the Solomon Islands. There is no word for crocodile in New Hebrides [Vanuatu] or Fiji farther to the east. Although there are crocodiles in the subtropics, the plant and animal groups mentioned above all point to the tropical belt ~ and the seaside ~as the homeland of the stronesians, From this one could say that the homeland of the A\ ins is either in Indonesia or along the nese Peninsula —no farther north than the southem border of China (south of the ‘Tropic of Cancer) and no farther south than Java (north of 8" latitude). It’s difficult to shrink the area any further using the data above because the climate, faun eastern coastline of the Indo and flora of the Indochinese Peninsula and the archipelago are so similar. This is the case for both positive and negative evidence. An example of negative evidence is the word for horse = kuda or kadjaran ~ which can be found in Cham (on the Indochinese im archipelago, Kern (1889) was appar h ofthe ly referi Peninsula), Malay, Batak (ji Sumatra), and Javanese, Judging from the word itself, however, it is more likely borrowed, possibly from Tamil or Sanskrit, We now know that some loan words were adopted across a large area, The Sanskrit word for sugarcane, for example, made it all the way to New Guinea, An interesting fact about the word kuda: after being adopted by the native languages of the Philippines the meaning of the word changed from horse to elephant, In most parts of Indonesia, the word for elephant is borrowed from Sanskrit, Other animals that can be found in most of Indonesia, the east coast of the Indochinese Peninsula and some parts of Taiwan include monkeys, mountai jcopards and numerous other felines, as well types of birds. Some of these animals cannot be found anywhere languages of Oceania. Therefore, we are unable to determine whether words for these animals in the westem and northern regions ‘were inherited from Proto-Austronesian, or whether the terms came into use after the diversification of Basten Austronesian. In the case of not so common terms in isolated, faraway places, classifying them as part of the proto-language makes more sense than saying they were borrowed from somewhere else. A good example of this is the word /utuy found in Javanese, Malay, Sundanese and Balinese, it refers to a kind of black- haired monkey. When attempting to trace the word north, one comes up empty-handed all the way to Taiwan, where it reappears as rutup, a general term for monkey. * Other than ng luruy originated in the is found hm i in Amis; ad 0; Las ever, found i north, o those spoken by the Tsu in central southern Taiwan. FartOne Orgs and grt proto-language and referred to a monkey ot the « better explanation? or black, is there a A comparison of terms for metals doesn't provide any definite answers. The only metal that might have been in the lexis of Proto- Austronesian iron, The Dayaks in Borneo and the Igorots in Luzon ‘were innately skilled blac outside world; and yet no matter how iths whose craft did not rely on contact w led a given tribe was at forging i once they x ted to a place without iron and lost all contact with their native land, they began using another metal and the word for iron became obsolete, ‘Adducing the evidence above, the homeland of the Austronesians is either along the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula or an island in the archipelago. Can other evidence be found to narrow the search even further? There are two directional terms commonly used by all Austronesians: seaward (PAN *laHud) and inland (or highland, PAN “Daya). It is logical to assume that people using such language lived in coastal areas, with the sea on one side and a fair expanse of land on the other, as opposed to an island surrounded by the ocean on all four sides. Using the s 1¢ logic, Borneo could be the homeland of the Austronesians as the massive size of the island hold population on such a broad swathe of fet comparable to that of a continent. This hypothesis doesn’ for very long though. How does one explain such a sm: land? Why didn't the Proto-Austronesians develop all the arable land on Borneo first, before splitting off into separate groups and migrating elsewhere? there must have been external forces that compelled them to disperse. The simplest answer is that they were gradually expelled from their homeland by an encroaching tribe with greater military might. Continuing along thi ¢ of reasoning, there are number of words in a4Proto-Austronesian, despite being unrelated in terms of language family. The Austr ng into consideration ny explanation for this phenomenon. Tal all the evidence above, Kem arrives at the final conclusion: the Proto- Austronesians the border areas between Annam and ived in Champa $ I the coastal areas in between, is agree with Kem's conclusion, bu tegrity of his argument. Most archeologists and anthro c flaws his theory is fairly solid ~ that’s not to say it's fa that are there do not compromise the overall As Dyen (1971:7) has pointed out, Kern believed that the Proto- ‘bogan to migrate because of external pressure from farther argument, however, docs not explain why they continued ard after settling on islands near the Indochinese ination of seafarers. 1 ied in the appendix of the original text ~ don't actual into a subgroup. To confirm that it ed by Kern belong to possible that some of the 30-plus terms 1 the ancient language, a reconstructed term must be found sn, This brings the issue of subgrouping into play. A number of different classifications have ubgroups directly under Proto-Austrones (1) Tsuchida (1976) Eaten Ptohtonesin [OM Parone Onaesensinaion 33 (2) Haudricourt (1962, 1965) 1 astern mnesian Western L taiwan (3) Dahl (1973) astern Out Western mein Tia (4) Blust (1977) Malayo-Polynesian- Paiwan Atayalic (5) Shutler & Marek (1975) Us Maluecan Dyen (1971:7-9) pointed out that if one adopts t above, which also happens to be the most common of the five, t first subgroupingn only jem Malayo-Polynesian because no cognates, or nates rather, can be found in Oceanic, If one of the other xd, however, cognates need only be found bgroups to be el Linguistics 101 Differences between Oceanic and Malayo-Polynesian languages common among the di 1. The loss of the Prot between voiced and voiceless obstr *8 and * %) 8, The loss of nasal accretion Jen-kuel Li: numerous verbs in Distribution of Austronesians ‘Oczonc easter) ‘Ouiside of Occani waster) Disbution of astern ane Western Austtonesion 35i 36 Migotona tomar crocodile, eel, fish poison, fish snare, octopus, oyster, oar, manta ray, shark, erayfish/lobster, conch and sea turtle; and tropical plants such as giant taro, bamboo, banana, séa putat, sheoak, coconut, Indian coral tree, runa and yam. In his conclusion Dyen said there were many ocean-related words in Proto- , which would ngrove, pandanus, sugarcane, taro, strongly su coast ofa larger body of land. Seeing as there are so many words for tropical plants in Janguage, it would stand to reason that the homeland of the Proto-Austronesians is somewhere along the tropi Austron would diminish the possibility that Taiwan is-the homeland of the Proto- Austronesians. Taiwan became an island during the last ice age ~ app. land today must have been introduced after the island's formation. Smaller seeds such as those of ‘the guava probably arrived in bird droppings. Larger seeds from pla found only by the sea — pandanus, arjuna and Indian coral tree ~ could only have made the trip by way of ocean currents, Thanks to advances in spore-pollen analysis, we now know that some non-native plants such as the coconut tree ~ po troduced by humans around 2,000 BC. B: existed in Proto-Austron ly even sugarcane — were ed on lexicostatisties, words for these plants ian as far back as 3,000 BC. Since the Proto- ready aware of these tropical plants, their homeland Austronesians were ‘could not have been Taiwan (See Dyen 1971:10-11).® hn ooedsdipore: ocean currents and hu Aisseminaor oo. bot Prone otansanegatin 37 Linguistics 101 | Voiced and voiceless Voiced phonemes are t bdg.viz.m0, vocal cords are voi sounds made when the vocal cords oscillate €,0, and u, Sounds made without the help of the »,t,k, fand s, A voiced phoneme that becomes a voiceless one is relerted to as devoiced: b > p, d >t, g> k, v>fand2>s. Despite being conceived from a thoroughly modem perspective, Kem's argument is still valuable. ‘The materials referenced in his essay from 1889 ate outdated, but easily corrected, While writing the essay Kern became acutely aware of a dearth of linguistic material for the jana Islands, Central Celebes, Fl Eastern New Guinea, New Ireland, New Britain and New Caledonia. following regions: Taiwan, Ma mnks to research conducted in the one hundred years sinee then, ample ‘material on the said regions is now available. 4. Dyen - New Guinea Sapir started out Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture by proposing that one can use the geographic distribution of related languages or dialects to trace the pathway and migratory history of a guistic difere (Sapir 1916), In given language family; the area with the greatest is the original homeland of the language famil is a more economical n that most of them were there originally than that they all wa n or were driven together into Ci Dyen (1956) later expounded upon this idea posit his essay “Language38 ton fhe forma Distribution and Migration Theory.” This was the method he used to determine the homeland of the Austronesians. Dyen produced the Lericostatistical Classification of the Austronesian Languages (Dyen 1965), in which he used the Swadesh 200-word list as the basis of his classification, minus four words that he deemed inapplicable: snow, ice, frozen and “that”, Not all of the 196 meanings were found in each language, however, so he was only able to compare lected word lists for 371 different luded that the greatest give or take a few. Dyen ot After doing a comparison he ree regions: 1) New Guinea — Melanesia; 2) ‘Taiwan; and 3) Sumatra and the islands along Sumatra’s west coast. These the New Guinea ve the lowest cognate percentage ~ Melanesia region boasts the largest number of languages, while the two regions of Taiwan and Sumatra have relatively few. A larger number Janguages reduces the margin of error in calculations; therefore the is to New Guinea ~ Melanesia evidence provided by lexicostatisties poi as the region with the greatest linguistic differentiation, which would also suggest that is very possibly the homeland of the Austronesians Dyen elaborated further by saying that many scholars ~ Milke and Grace among others — are convinced that the languages of Eastem New Guinea and Melanesia all belong to the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. This is because the Oceanic languages such as the loss of voicing contrast. Therefore, [Dyen concludes that] the region with the greatest differer nea, which would also maki tion is Western New homeland of the Austronesians. On the other hand, if mutual phonetic transformations are used as the basis of language classification, then the Austronesi Parone onaesnitin 39 of Taiwan qualify as a subgroup, as they all share the same phonetic anges: the fusing of *t and *C, the fusing of *n and *N, and so on. All of these languages natu Extra-Formosan, This would mean that Formosan languages boast the ‘reatest linguistic differentiation, and that Taiwan could very well be the homeland of the Austronesians (Dyen 1971:14. Dyen (Dyen 1964) once pointed out that the Austronesi ly form a subgroup; we' all it Proto- languages many ways and many words are in common usage throughout ~ something not seen in Extra-Formosan languages ing the following 37: feather, large, blood, cloud, pull, sing, s, yesterday, twenty, monkey, pangolin, bee, ghost, bamboo, nana, leaf, yam, count, grandfather, mont! der, urine, eye, salt, corre: and wash.” General near, without, iver, new, rotten, penis, some another language. languages particular to swan would seem to warrant the placement of call it Proto-Formosan, If this then Taiwan does not fit the profile for the homeland of the the said languages into one group. We is the cas Austronesians, Dyen's theory is posited on the fol ing: 1) The region with the ic differentiation is the homeland [of the Austronesians]; nesian languages of Taiwan. allowing: wrapeover, the words d roto-Southem Formosan there are even more cogatts i ‘own research few yeas ago, there ate region exclisively, bean, oer, moment, esifies them as beatogry. According to my ‘othe Tuvani | i i 40. TreLinic Coops, Merton te Frmonan ates 2) the Swadesh 200-word fist, or rather the most important and enduring vocabulary in the Austronesian languages; and 3) Dyer’ the 352 languages selected for the lexicostatistical classi ‘high degree of accuracy in calculations for cognate percentages. Dahl (1973:123) disagreed with this theory: To me it seems 's own grasp of ati ensuring, impossible to determine the original homeland of this family by linguistic means only. We have no guarantee that there is a single Austronesian- speaking person left in the country that was the homeland, Spread as they are over innumeral ¢ islands in two oceans, itis clear that they must have been seafarers from the beginning of their dispersion or even before. If a population of seafarers is oppressed by enemies from the landward side, it is easy for them to take their families into their canoes, and with some pots and fishing gear to sail over the seas to another shore. Individuals loft ‘would be slain or absorbed by the invaders. Other reasons for transfer to new homes could be seeking for better fishing grounds, or better fields for supplementary agriculture or hunting, Both making inquiries and moving are easier for seafarers than for most other populations. And they may have made complete transfers more than once in their ‘history’, They ne not have been a very great tribe at that time, If they went to more or less cunpopulated islands, they would ‘That they have remained in the or lication, ve good inal homeland till today is therefore lity among many others. lations Dyen concluded that the greatest linguistic ‘ee distinct regions. He then eliminated two nguages belonging to these regions are few. That left the New Guinea ~ Melanesia of these: Taiwan and Sumatra, the main reason being that the region — the one with most languages. Dyen then narrowed this down even further, ei inating the languages belonging to the Eastern New the greatest linguistic differentiation were true, how would we 1 regions where the number of languages and degree of differentiation for a given language family are determine the homeland if there are about the same? The reasons for linguistic dif cases it is the result of mixing. Some scholars (Arthur Capell 1962, for example) believe that the languages of Melane: Austronesian, but rather the result of pidgi ization ly the earliest to split from the greatest differentiation weren't necess: the proto-language. Linguistics 101 How much do we know about Austronesian cognate percentages? According to Dyen's repor, there family with a cognate percentage than 11% (based on the glottact is language sp! the others more than 5,000 years aga). There are eight languages or subgroups: a cognate percentage less than 15%; 33 with less than 20%; and 87 than 25%. In total, there are 39 languages or subgroups with he glottochronologic gor family around 1,500 BC). OF t 39 languages/subgroups, 36 are in Melanesia; 7 aro in New Gi are in the Bismark Archipelago; 5 are in the Solomon Islands; 2 are 12 language in the Austronesian 16%), Engganese off the coast land Yapesa in Micronesia, The percentages above wouldThe area in, Taiwan with the greatest linguistic differentiation is, Nantou County: Atayalic (including the dialects Squlig and T.ole); Seediq (including the dialects Tkdaya, Toda and Truku) Tsouic (spoken by the Jiumei community in Wangmei Village, Sinyi Township); Paiwan, , Papora, Babuza, Taokas, Hoanya, et. nesian languages ean be found in Nantou County, mostly concentrated in and around Puli Township. If Taiwan happened to be the jan languages, or if we could prove that Taiwan was the region with the great Nantou County not be the birthplace of the Austronesians? * The problem with t Imost all of Bunun, Thao, Pav the major Aus only place with Austron diversity of Austronesian languages, then how cou line of thinking is that we already know several of the lowland tribes - Pazih and Papora to name a few ~ migrated to the Puli area at a later poi on Lanyang Plain, where various roaming or fleeing tribes converged, ‘uring the river valley into a confluence of multiple ethnic groups (Ruan Chang-rui 1966:29). linguistic differentiation in a given region is due to s: different groups migrating to the region in different 1g from different areas within the same jwanese anthropologists and archeologists and Sung Wen-hsun — were inclined to the if true, would mean that Nantou County was once a point of convergence for all the different tribes instead of a single point of origin from where all the tribes dispersed. Nantou County the homeland but itis almost certainly the earliest settlement. ° ight not be Mabuchi Toichi (1954) pointed out that the large-scale dispersal of Tai population was fairly recent, 0c the past two to three hundred years. Figures from a census of Taiwan's indigenous sring only in indigenous population found in Dutch rds from the mid 17th century ~ covering all ofthe island except for the northern and centr - would seem to corroborate this statement. In the mid 18th century, the Atayal bega mountains ing in waves northward and eastward from their southwestern point of origin, splitting up into app. 30 tribes. Around the beginning of the 18th century the Bunun migrated from the western side of the Central Mountain Range to the s persing to become five separate tribes and s absorbing all tribal elements from the western river basins. A few hundred years ago, the Saisiyat and Tsou were spread across a much broader swathe of yuth and east, the proc ind than they are now. Extemal pressure from encroaching tribes and infectious + RAE AB ASE FES TU): 40M» F51-84° 1978 CAE EAUBESRAR AL) » CARL: PRES Mia SCH) + FL 475-89 » ae HHA ZS A « esa 1950 CRIRMEASCLWEAEAL) « CAMA) MOF » Rigds0%:3 22H» CORA CRI) BUSES - RL CMR) 44 Whe P13 + 1955) 1952 (TPR ASE > = CARESET) «5 1 + BQH» FR 36- 2° ‘BME 1954 I= + Beet 1955 BREF LAAT » (AAR 798 + 35 + F243 d. Bljdragen tot de Taa- Kadai, and Indonesian: a new alignment in s serican Anthropologist 44,516-601 PatOne Osgnsand gation 59) ‘tert 1975 Austro-Thai Language and Culture: with a Glossary of Roots, HPAP Press. Capell, Arthur 1962 Oceeni Chang, Kwang. Current 19 5.359-406, Chang, Kwang-chih 1969 Fengpitou, Tapente) ‘Anth and the Prekistory of Taiwan. Yale University yy, No.73. New Haven: Department Dahl, Otto Chr, 1973 Provo-d Series No. Dempwoltf, Otto Language 3838-46. The posi f the Malayo-Polynesi Perspectives 7261-11. ges. Journal of PolynesGrace, George, 1961 Au iguisties and culture history. American Anthropologist swold, A.B, (eds), Bssays offered to G.H.Luce by His C Friends in Hoy 3, Switzer lay. sci Asin, Kern, HA, 18891 Polyn ‘wetenschappen,afdeel Verspreide geschriften 6.104-20, 's skundige gegevens ter bepaling van het stamla sche volken. Verslagen en Mededeelingen der kon. ferkonde, 3de reeks, dl. 6270-87 (re ravenhage,1917 [Linguistic evidence f the Malayo-Polynesian peoples], translated by Curtis D. MeFarlond and Studies, 60-81,1976. Krahe, Hans. nd Vorzel 1954 Sprache Sprache, Heidelberg, On RC, and Kelly, M. (eds.), Studies Anthropological records No.13. Hon 'Berence P,Biship Museum. Sapir, Edward 1916 Time perspective 90, Ant aboriginal Amer sof Edward Sapir, ed. David G, Mandelbaum, Angeles,1949,) Sol rer, A. 1968 Die Urhe Darmstadt. Shutler, Ric of Proto-Tsonie pho ures of Asia & Afi Foreiga Studies. S.A. &B. Wilson 1975 English finderlist of reconstructior Brandstetter). Pac By. Tokyo: Study of Lai aphy Series No.S, Tokyo ee62 Chapter 2 Migrational history of the Austronesians in Taiwan From the perspective of linguistic data and phenomena |, Preface ‘The Austronesians of Taiwan are further divided into mountain and lowland tribes. The mountain tribes mainly reside in the mountainous areas of Taiwan, although there are some — the Amis for example ~ who also live in the lowlands. Many of the lowland tribes have been Sinicized and cannot be distinguished from the average Chinese [immigrant]. In some cases even they are unaware of their own Austronesian ethnicity. Other tribes have only been partially assimilated. ‘Two toy bbe discussed in this essay: 1. The migration and dispersal of the Austronesians on the island of Taiwan. This topic is much easier to determine as there is evidence from a number of ic data and exten: ferent sources at our delineate, including documentation; and 2. When and from where did the Austronesians come to Taiwan? How did they get here? This topic is much more complicated and a number of different theories have been advanced. Written records of the Austronesians in Taiwan are virtually nonexistent, It wasn't u the Dutch occupied the island more than 300 years ago (1624-1662) that more detailed and reliable documentation of some of the lowland tribes came into being, Therefore, anything past 400 ‘years is considered prel ‘To produce history without written records, a number of different methods and knowledge bases from various disciplines may be employed. These discip thropology and genetics among others. With inary knowledge we are better able to pinpoint the homeland of the Austronesians, trace their paths of include migration sion and create corresponding timelines. But what we have come up with so far are merely hypotheses or theories. As soon as new data or evidence is introduced we must go back and revise our i hypothesis so that our explanation still makes sense, A hypothesis is not based on conjecture alone. ‘0 arrive at a hypothesis and build up to a y formed theory one must be well versed in the empirical methods of science, Employing linguistic methods one can produce a relative chronology, but no reliable method exists for absolute chronology. ‘must apply carbon-14 dating —a method commonly used by archec to di rtifacts or remains. With archeological methodology, phenomena and placement in time are determined based on the layer of the excavation and the artifacts or remains excavated, To what ethnic group the find belongs is much more difficult to determine, however, and often requires dating methods based on iguistic data, When it comes to ‘ide the most objective and the sifying ethnic groups, languages pr most standardized framework.IL. Distribution and grou the Austronesians The distribution of the Austronesians encompasses an especially arge area — much larger than that of Chinese or English-speaking peoples. Besides Taiwan, there are the Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Indochit Ocean. Easter Island on the west coast of South America is the most st of Aftica the most iiwan and south to New Zealand. This entire Peninsula, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian easterly point; and Madagascar on the east westerly, reaching north to is inhabited by Aus area describ area jans. Australia, however, is not within the ind non-Austronesian languages exist in some parts of ‘New Guinea and certain istands in the South Pacific Given the vastness of the area that Austronesians inhabit, how do we determine their homeland, or the place they originated prior to their dispersal? This is a difficult question to answer, A number of the have been advanced. In China one often hears the theory that came from the Mainland. Another theory is that they originated nesia, According to yet another theory, the homeland of the Austronesians is in western New Guinea. And yet another theory places the homeland of the Austronesians on the Indochinese Peninsula (for the above see Li 1979), According to the theory that has gained prevalence in recent years, the Austronesians originated in Taiwan. In other words, we their eventual separation they all lived on the island of Taiwan, wns! arca of distribution is mainly one of islands cen the ethnic group singular characteristics. ‘They excel at navigating the seas; they had already developed advanced seafaring technology thousands of years ago. This technology is what PutOne orgie andMigrtion 65 ‘haper2 ‘made it possible for them to expand out across such @ large area, There are two commonly recognized groupings for Austronesian languages: nguages to the west ~ including wan, the Philippines, Borneo, and the Greater Sunda Islands ~ are known as Western Austronesi and all languages to the east in Oceania are cal of Oceanic, There are excepti od Eastern Austrone: however; this is because of migration among the different tribes. Palawan, spoken on the island on Pala, and Chamorro, spoken in Saipan and Guam ~ all islands in the Mariana Archipelago — bel ng to Western Austronesian and are closely related Philippines. Oceania can be further divided into three regions: Southern (Melanesia), Central (Micronesia); and Basten (Polynesia). Bi t Alfred Russell Wallace journeyed to the Far Ea at the end of the 19th century and during field work discovered that there was animal and plant life on the ish natura lands of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali resembling species found on the Asian mainland. This division was later coined the Wallace Line. To the west of the line live a number of placental mammals: bears, monkeys, deer, cows, sheep, hogs and 3 are marsupials similar to the kangaroo in 0 divided along the same line, with rice only to ice Line, Rice might be found to the east of the line today, but it was brought there by humans at a much later point in time. re as well, Australia, Plant the west of the Wal ‘would seem that the Wallace Line applies to langu OoMorton tharos Res ‘npr? sora Ocacnia Worldmap ‘Distbution of Austronesian 66, Te Mc Gow Lzninysard Parone Crigneand Miontion 67Ill. Austronesian migration on the island of Taiwan The “nine tribe Mountain Range; the term does not include lowland tribes. Ten generally refers to those residing within the Cent tribes comprise the lowland group, but this may vary depending on how 1992). The mountain tribes from north to rea; the they are categorized (see south are the Atayal, distil and then the Bunun, Tsou, Rukai and Paiwan, Residing ist Rift Valley along the cast coast of Taiwan are the Amis and Puyuma, The Yamis live on Orchid Island. The ted across a wide des tiny in the ‘Taiwan are the Ketagalan and Kavalan. Along the western coast are the Taokas, Pazeh, Papora, Babuza and Hoanya, The Siraya reside in the southwestern lowlands, The Thao in and around Sun-Moon Lake are neither highland nor lowland; they belong to the so-called assimilated group of aborigines. The distribution of the Austronesians of Taiwan has changed little over the past one hundred years. The mountain tribes ‘were not always spread out across such a wide area, Initially they were concentrated 4 County in central-southem Taiwan, Around two where, It to three hundred years ago, a few tribes began moving ‘wasn'ta full-scale exodus; the tribes did not pack up and move en masse. Rather, they gradually began to disperse. The Paiwan were the first to disperse, with some moving to adjacent areas more than three hundred ‘years ago. They once inhabited the northwest comer of their current area of distribution. The Atayal once inhabited the southwest comer of their current area of distribution (Fa-hsiang Village, Ren-ai Township, Nantou County), afterwards years ago. The Saisiyat didn't always inhabit such a small area. Certain spersing to the east and to the north around 250 fom oimanaraton 69 factors led to a decrease in population, in effect causing their area of distribution to shrink. The Tsou's area of distribution also contracted due , encroaching Chinese or extemal pressure from the Bunun or lowland tribes. Initially the Bunun inhabited the northwest comer (Hsinyi , Nantou County) of their current area of distribution. They ‘bogan migrating to the south and. Mabuchi Toichi 1954) Evidence to corroborate the period of history described above can be language/culture field surveys and oral accounts recorded by the Japanese. Each tribe has its own legends he east around 300 years ago (see id in Dutch written document and stories; some are related to their dispersal. These legends match up with documentation produced by Dutch colonials and [indigenous] language and culture surveys made by the Japanese. Using this method we have been able to determine where the tribes originated and how they dispersed. The methodology may be explained as follows: Within a larger area, if there is most likely an area of more recent dispersal. Within a given are cts is great it is very likely the homeland [of ethnic group]. Languages are like people; they are utilized by people. differentiation among tt Ifa high degree of linguistic divergence is concentrated in one location, ihood that this location is the homeland of the group is very high. phenomena work in much the same way. In regards to lowland tribes, the Taokas, Papora, Babuza and Hoanya reside in the northwestem plains, A comparison of their languages shows, that the fou their homeland is probably farther i ‘bes are closely related. From a geographical viewpoint, and near a natural junction or confluence. As explained above, the mountain tribes were originally ted in the central-southem mountains, especially in what istoday known as Nanto happened lowland tribes is not as clear, al in Taiwan many also el ly. an home. There were probably settlements in , but not nearly as The Ketangalan Along the Plain are called 1 the townships of as w the Lanyang Plain [Yilan C IV. Origins and dispersal of the Austronesians , pandanus, wild yam root, taror 29838 agai’ fes8 sea animals such as shrimp, shark, crocodile, sea tule and octopus. The | § Ef 3 3 Pabag word for boat is also a commonly shared cognate. Many of the plants 3 } Blog 2 tS c - andanus and giant . 1.4 : Beaga ed above — coconut, pa giant ro toname afew are |g i ss «} i] ba 8eg s proves th i bake Bhage ba : a] 3k after discovering that many Austronesian languages are closely related to Southeast Asian I and Vietnamese, and from this shea At, The Kara ages. He found many loan words from Khmer juded that th Austronesians was somewhere on the Indochinese Peni a homeland of the to Borneo Suaives ave ene Timon er ince, Ste American heartand of ory was very convincing ~ so much so wasn't until a few ‘years ago that someone came out sed theory. Based on guistic evidence French scholar Andre Hau asserts that the hom with a r icourt ind of the Austronesic farther north in the temperate zone or the subtropics: along the southern border of CI between somewhere n Island and Seven stages of Austonesin dspetsal [Dacram by Pete Blood Taiwan.