Reanalyzing Change and Continuity in Amis Religion
Shiun-wey Huang, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica
During the 1950s and 1960s, Austronesians in Taiwan converted to Christianity in great numbers. This could be viewed as a unique religious phenomenon in the world’s ethnography. In almost all other cases in Africa, America and Oceania, indigenous people’s conversion to Christianity occurred under white colonial rule. Therefore Christianity is often associated with aspects of colonial influence, including politics, economics, military conquests and education, and the adoption of Christianity is seen as a result of so-called ‘white power.’ However, in the case of Taiwan, Austronesians’ conversion to Christianity happened under the rule of the Chinese nationalist government, shortly after Japan returned the island to the hands of the KMT. The particularity of these religious movements in Taiwan raises many interesting anthropological questions worthy of thorough exploration. Studying religious change and continuity among Austronesians in Taiwan in social and historical context has been my major research interest since 1986. I have been doing research mainly among the Amis (or Ami), the biggest group of Austronesians in Taiwan, paying special attention to the processes, motives, meanings and impacts of their radical religious change after the mid-1950s. In the past decade, my research has shifted to historical and cognitive anthropology. I try to understand the distinctiveness of Amis society and culture in terms of both the objective and subjective dimensions of history, focusing particularly on Amis socio-cultural change and continuity under Japanese rule. I have also attempted to understand religion from a cognitive angle in the past few years. This paper reanalyzes Amis religious change and continuity from new perspectives.
