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Analysis of human creation myth of Taiwan nomadic tribes

  • The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
  • Abbr : JSLCKC
  • 2013, (33), pp.435-455
  • DOI : 10.16874/jslckc.2013..33.018
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Published : October 31, 2013

Intack Lee 1

1울산대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article deals with the characteristics of myths of Paiwan, Lukai and Beinan resided in Taiwan, and also tries to make a search for the relation among these tribes more deeply, based on the mythic stories. There are few world creation stories in Taiwan alpine tribe’s myths, but on the other hand there are plenty of myths related with the human origin. Accordingly, this article is mainly focusing on the creation of humankind, especially the progenitor of the tribes. Generally speaking, these three tribes have the common mythic patterns, which show us their strong blood and culture relation. At the same time, each tribe has different mythic elements, due to the frequent exchange with the other tribes besides these tribes in a tiny island. Especially, the coexistence of diverse patterns like birth by stone or bamboo and incubation of egg by the sun or snake in a tribe’s myths reflects the influence of the mutual relation or unity between tribes with different totems. And we can presume that the formation of Taiwan alpine culture originated from the culture of southern areas such as Indonesia, Philippine on the one hand, and the culture of southern China on the other hand, through the research on the bamboo myth and the close relation between Taiwan alpine language and Indonesian language, and in the light of the partial similarity of Taiwan alpine myth and Chinese one. Meanwhile, the pattern of egg birth by the sun in Taiwan alpine myth is slightly different from the type of oviparity by sunbird, which is popular in the cultural area of east sea including Dong-yi culture.

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