Taiwan Austronesians
Aboriginals, their struggle and origins
Taiwan Austronesian struggle
Cultural Suppression ~ Due to repression throughout the centuries, the indigenous peoples of Taiwan have experienced social and economic inequality, high unemployment and substandard education. The Taiwan Austronesian (“aboriginal”) population is slowly dying out just like many indigenous populations around the world. Taiwan Austronesians are about 580,000 people representing 2.3% of the Taiwan population. There are more who are petitioning for recognition (the plains indigenous peoples) which might move the number to 800,000. The 'Amis people are the largest group (200,000). Recent resurgence in ethnic pride has brought an increased popularity of aboriginal music and culture.
Land Rights ~ Hans and the aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. With the occupation of the Ching Dynasty, the Chinese population grew to about 100,000, or nearly equal to the size of the indigenous population and intermarriage occurred among the plains aboriginals and Chinese settlers. Plains aboriginal groups that were integrated with the Han maintained some land rights through the early 1700s but much of their lands gradually came into Chinese hands through coercion and fraud. Despite two centuries of colonisation, over 50 percent of Taiwan’s land remained in aboriginal control upon Japanese occupation. The Japanese terminated indigenous land rights in 1895.
Comfort Women ~ Over 2,000 Taiwanese women, euphemistically called “comfort women” were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese. The women were initially promised work such as housecleaning and laundry for soldiers. Many women opted into these jobs because they were pressured to earn an income for their families. Some women were taken when their husbands were conscripted into the army.
Language Suppression ~ Tribal cultures and languages, are slowly being lost. Out of the 26 recorded Taiwan aboriginal languages, ten are already classified as “extinct languages”, and the rest are in the process of dying out or classed as “endangered”. This is a result of integration with the Chinese and learning Mandarin, or later because of the Japanese assimilation project. During Japanese occupation, people were taught to view themselves as Japanese. Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed, and they were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.
Headhunting Savages ~ Due to historical violence and the stigma of “savage” label, (and probably also opium usage), business and government positions were closed to aboriginals. Few leadership roles were available to natives even decades after Japan relinquished the island.
Every aboriginal tribe except the Tao people practiced headhunting which was a symbol of bravery. It was believed that men who did not take heads could not cross the rainbow bridge into the spirit world. This of course, is one of the main reasons for aboriginal cultural image as violent savages. The Japanese campaigned against mountain “savages” in a series of bloody battles, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930. The Seediq tribe attacked a village, killing over 130 Japanese. In retaliation, the Japanese killed over 600 Seediq.
It’s difficult to determine the accuracy of the narrative. If headhunting was so prevalent, why did the Han want to migrate there to escape poverty on the mainland and marry the natives for a “better life”? If the tribes had just been left alone in the mountains would things have been different? It is gruesome to think about it, but even after the Pacific battles of World War II and the Vietnam war, a few Americans even brought skulls home as souvenirs. If we are to temporarily set aside personal sensitivities in an attempt to be objective about it, killing is “savage” whether the head is removed or not. Violence took place on every side in Taiwan.
Other cultural links to this practice can be found in Melanesia, southeast Asia, and the Māori of New Zealand who also practiced headhunting. For a mainland China cultural link to headhunting, we can go back to Qin Chinese soldiers around 481-403 BC. Chinese authorities also displayed executed criminals heads in public right up to the early 20th century.
Japanese Samurai warriors also ceremoniously presented trophy heads to their generals. In the Nanjing massacre in 1937, Chinese soldiers and civilians were beheaded by Japanese who had killing contests, and then took photos of the piles of heads.
Biopiracy ~ Taiwan Aborigines say they have been subjected to modern genetic sampling more than other ethnic groups. Determining whether Taiwan is the origin of Austronesian peoples, is one question driving geneticists to target aborigines for blood samples. Another reason for the interest is that researchers believe that aborigines have developed specific genes for fighting diseases.
Recently, aborigines became the target of an AIDS research project. Since no AIDS deaths have been recorded among aborigines, researchers hypothesised that they possess a gene variation which counteracts HIV. The researchers planned to collect blood in large quantities from 40,000 aborigines.
The actual motives were hidden from tribes who were told the research was for health reasons. Formal consent was not given and the results would have become the intellectual property of the researchers. When this was discovered, Taiwan legislators sought to enact laws that patents cannot be granted to genome researchers who had performed without proper consent.
List of Taiwanese Austronesian Tribes
原住民 (yuán zhù mín) is the commonly used politically correct umbrella term for indigenous people. Mainland China still commonly calls them 高山人 (gāo shān rén), literally: high mountains people. The recognised indigenous tribes are: Ami, Atayl (Atayal), Bunun Hla’alua, Kanakanavu, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma (Pinuyumayan), Rukai, Saisiat (Saisyat), Sakizaya, Seediq (Sediq), Thao, Truku, Tsou, Yami (Yamei). The classifications were developed by Japanese anthropologists a century ago, so these classifications are rejected by some tribes. The Taroko (or Sediq/Sedeeq) people question their official designation as "subtribes" of the Tayal (or Atayal); the Tao, reject their official name of Yamei.
Austronesian Language Family Origins
It is consensus opinion that Taiwan is the linguistic origin of the Austronesian language family. This was first proposed in 1963 by Isidore Dyen based on the fact that Taiwan, with more than 20 languages, has the greatest number of concentrated languages. Linguists propose that Taiwan as the homeland from which seafaring people dispersed. The Austronesian language family spans from Southeast Asia, west to Madagascar, east as far as New Zealand as well as Hawaii and Easter Island. While strong evidence of Austronesian linguistic roots in Taiwan has been established, there is little if any linguistic evidence to suggest a pre-Austronesian language group in geographic China (there is one possible linguistic link to words for numbers). This is one reason for the curiosity of origins. How can it be that a small island disconnected from any other large land mass has such linguistic diversity and yet there is no apparent pre-Austronesian linguistic link? It’s a mysterious question.
Taiwan Arrival Date
A 6,000 years ago (ya) arrival is inferred based on genetic probability. Other inferred possibilities for an arrival date would be: date of Chinese expansion to the east and a date when sea levels rose isolating Taiwan from mainland China (if a link to China exists); backdating from an inferred date of Polynesian expansion; or a date when sea travel was possible.
It is thought that Geographically, Taiwan was joined to the Asian mainland in the Late Pleistocene (Ice Age), until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Cultural origin legends of Taiwanese tribes are all about survival after a great flood in their ancestral past. The Ami origin legend says that a couple were blown from a small island to the south called lan-yu (Orchid Island) after a great flood; Kavalan legend is that their ancestors drifted to Tamsui (a district in Taipei) from Shanghai after a great flood. It could be that a large flood occurred before sea travel was possible and the Taiwanese tribes are survivors who somehow floated there and became isolated.
Origins Debate
Besides all the other exploitations, it seems that once again, Taiwan Austronesians are being exploited by both pro-China and pro-National groups in an attempt to authenticate Taiwan’s “earliest residents” as evidence toward a political viewpoint. Although interest in origins might not be politically motivated and simply a curiosity about the origins of Oceana peoples, the answer to the question is potentially controversial, and has political consequences. Those with a Pro-China view wish to establish an origin connection to mainland China; while Taiwanese Nationalists would rather find evidence to support an independent identity. This makes it difficult to find unbiased information regarding origins. However, very recent archeological evidence and genetic research has interesting results.
Baxian Caves
A more recent occupation would serve to politically downplay the often used label of “aboriginal”. Indeed, these tribes might be more appropriately called Taiwan Austronesian, since they may not be the first arrivals. In any case, “aboriginal” has already become common terminology. Collected local legends include stories of small dark people. The Saisiyat tribe “Festival of the Short People” commemorates the deaths of the remainder of them. In 2016 archeological evidence backed these stories up.
Fragmentary human remains were discovered at Taitung’s Basian (Baxian) Caves (八仙洞). Also found were stone artefacts and implements made of bone and antler. The implements show similarities with tools from southeast Asia and the Ryukyus Japanese island chain. Associated marine shells suggested dating between 6,200-5,700 ya. More recent finds of flaked tools yielded dates believed to be ranging from 27,000 to 15,000 ya. If the older date is accurate, it sort of flies in the face of both Pro-China and Nationalist political views. Not only might the earliest arrival date be older, but the remains are genetically unrelated to either mainland Chinese or Taiwan Austronesians. The skeletal remains look similar to the Negritos of the Philippines. Researchers confirmed this:
“The short stature, short limbs and small cranial size of the Xiaoma individual indicate a close affinity to Negrito (Ayta) groups in the Philippines.”
Liangdao Man and other genetic research
At least one genetic researcher suggested that Taiwan Austronesians are culturally “relict”, meaning a “remnant” people:
“…diverse deep pool of mtDNA in these tribes provide a tantalizing hint that present-day aboriginal Taiwanese are relict descendants of south Chinese or Indochinese Neolithic populations.”
In 2011 there was an archeological find of skeletal remains which provides a possible link to mainland China named Liangdao Man. The remains were discovered on Liang Island of the Matsu archipelago located on the Min River estuary, 24 km from Fujian and 180 km northwest of Taiwan.
The thoracic rib yielded a date of 8,060-8,320. A shell mound above it contained artefacts such as pottery, stone and bone tools. Radiocarbon dates of the shells and charcoal from the layers above the Liangdao Man, range from 7,500 to 7,900 ya. This positions it at the appropriate time and place to potentially provide insights about the early Austronesian expansion into Taiwan as well as a genetic link to southern China. Two Austronesian tribe DNA sequences were the closest matches, the Ami tribe and Atayal. Liangdao Man also established a link between mtDNA E haplotype (which links to Southern China) and E1 haplotypes (which links to Austronesians). Liangdao Man is at the star on this inferred genetic tree:
Other notable findings about Taiwan Austronesians which can be inferred from recent genetic studies:
Common ancient origins and long-term isolation from other Asian populations.
Diverse genetic pool among Taiwanese Aboriginal tribes (they are highly diverse from each other).
Three Taiwanese aboriginal tribes exhibit more genetic affinities to Oceania groups: Paiwan, Puyuma and Saisiyat.
Taiwanese aboriginals lack the most common Asian mtDNA SSO type (234), which has been found in every other east Asian population sampled.
O3a2 lineage, widespread across Island southeast Asia, Indonesia and Polynesia, has not been detected in mainland Asia (Karafet et al., 2010).
There is a link between the Ami tribe and Polynesia via a rare subhaplogroup, O3a2c, which is detected only at extremely low levels in some mainland east Asian groups (Mirabal et al., 2012).
Classic genetic markers point to overall genetic affinities with south China and southeast Asia (Kutsuna and Matsuyama 1939; Chou 1959; Huang 1964; Huang and Sheen 1966; Ikemoto et al. 1966; Nakajima et al. 1967, 1971; Nakajima and Ohkura 1971).
About 60% Māori DNA is in common with Taiwanese aboriginal DNA.
Reconciling the past and moving forward
Interestingly, the current Taiwan President, Tsai is the first leader of Taiwan with indigenous heritage background. Her grandmother was a Taiwanese aborigine from the Paiwan tribe. In 2016, For the first time in history, a Taiwanese president finally offered an apology. President Tsai of Taiwan offered her “fullest apology” on behalf of the government and country for the treatment Taiwanese aborigines have endured over the years, she said:
“If we wish to declare ourselves as a country of one people, we need to face these historical facts. We have to face the truth.”
Taiwan’s transformation out of “a ball of mud beyond the seas… full of naked and tattooed savages” as described by advisors to the Chinese Emperor, is a remarkable journey toward independence and self-determination despite what seems to be an almost impossible situation. It makes me happy to see the colorful traditional dress and the proud, smiling happy faces in the photo below.
Taiwan, (a previous relevant Simmystery article)
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When I see this I feel it's really time to end this world. It's not getting any better. So much trauma in every country.