Durham E-Theses Passage to Rights: Rethinking Indigenous People's Drinking Practices in Taiwan WU, YI-CHENG How to cite: WU, YI-CHENG (2021) Passage to Rights: Rethinking Indigenous People's Drinking Practices in Taiwan , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13958/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Passage to Rights: Rethinking Indigenous People’s Drinking Practices in Taiwan Yi-Cheng Wu Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Social Sciences and Health Department of Anthropology Durham University Abstract This thesis aims to explicate the meaning of indigenous people’s drinking practices and their relation to indigenous people’s contemporary living situations in settler-colonial Taiwan. ‘Problematic’ alcohol use has been co-opted into the diagnostic categories of mental disorders; meanwhile, the perception that indigenous people have a high prevalence of drinking nowadays means that government agencies continue to make efforts to reduce such ‘problems’. Indigenous people in Taiwan still face continuous marginalisation and systemic discrimination which render drinking a prominent issue. However, interventions based on public health narratives lack efficacy due to discordant understandings of illness, moral experience and perceptions of culture. Based on 12 months of multi-sited research in Taiwan, my study finds indigenous drinking cultures have been both generated and reshaped by their life situations, both historically and contemporarily. Drinking practices today reveal suffering under structural violence but also show resistance emerging from social change. Drinking is also practised at the interstices of contested values that make health narratives invalid. An ever-reproducing drinking culture shows a gesture of self-fashioning under multiple sufferings, as well as strategies to restore livelihoods. In the time to pursue transitional justice, indigenous people’s symbolic sobriety unfolds through resistance against current governmentality over drinking in one sense, but fighting for autonomy in another. Therefore, drinking can be understood as a ‘passage to rites/rights’ that represents the struggle of indigenous people in search of traditional values and future respect. 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 14 1.1 Research background ..................................................................................... 15 1.1.1 Aims of this research ......................................................................... 15 1.1.2 The beginning of my anthropological journey................................... 19 1.1.3 Preliminary research in Wufeng ........................................................ 20 1.2 Current indigenous situations ........................................................................ 23 1.2.1 Yuanchumin: The people who lived on this land ............................... 23 1.2.2 Migration and marginalisation under colonialism ............................. 25 1.2.3 Transitional justice for indigenous people in Taiwan ........................ 30 1.2.4 Anthropological reflections on indigenous alcohol use ...................... 32 1.3 Theorising drinking practices ........................................................................ 37 1.3.1 Practice theories .................................................................................. 37 1.3.2 Cultural values and everyday morality .............................................. 39 1.3.3 Drinking and Ritual............................................................................. 43 1.3.4 Drinking and Tourism ......................................................................... 45 1.3.5 Structural violence and agency ........................................................... 46 1.4 Towards a self-reflective approach ................................................................ 48 1.4.1 Professional no more.......................................................................... 48 1.4.2 ‘You should write it conversely!’ ...................................................... 50 1.4.3 Intersubjectivity ................................................................................. 52 1.5 Thesis outline ................................................................................................. 55 2. Methodology ........................................................................................................... 59 2.1 Multi-sited fieldwork in the era of displacement ........................................... 59 2.1.1 ‘Roots and routes’ .............................................................................. 59 2.1.2 Scale up and scale out ........................................................................ 61 2.2 General ethical considerations ....................................................................... 67 2.2.1 The right to informed consent ............................................................ 68 2.2.2 Ethical guidelines ............................................................................... 69 2.2.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 74 3. Governing Indigenous People’s Drinking in Taiwan .............................................. 75 3.1 Indigenous people’s drinking in Taiwan: A medical gaze ............................. 75 3.2 Governing drinking ........................................................................................ 79 3.2.1 Jiejiu: Imposing health citizenship ..................................................... 79 3.2.2 Government-commissioned jiejiu projects ......................................... 80 3.2.3 The Love of Maya ............................................................................... 81 3.3 Delivering Healthcare .................................................................................... 84 2 3.3.1 Local health practitioners .................................................................... 85 3.3.2 IDS Conference ................................................................................... 91 3.3.3 Cultural Care in Wufeng ..................................................................... 94 3.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 100 4. Stigma and Stereotype ........................................................................................... 103 4.1 Joking About Drinking ................................................................................ 104 4.2 The Songs..................................................................................................... 107 4.3 ‘He is just sleeping; he will wake up later’ .................................................. 114 4.3.1 Between ‘Wet’ and ‘Dry’ .................................................................. 114 4.3.2 Street Heroes ..................................................................................... 115 4.3.3 Primal scenes .................................................................................... 118 4.3.4 ‘It is better to die!’ ............................................................................ 122 4.4 ‘We are not Jiugui’ (drunkards) ................................................................... 123 4.4.1 Masculinity, Tayal balay and tqwau ................................................. 123 4.4.2 Women, the light drinkers................................................................. 127 4.5 Blaming the governors ................................................................................. 130 4.5.1 The alcohol monopoly ...................................................................... 131 4.5.2 Alcohol Reserved for the Highlands ................................................. 134 4.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 137 5. Between Sacred and Secular .................................................................................. 139 5.1 Drinking and Atayal’s Gaga ........................................................................ 140 5.1.1 Gaga and the sacred wine ................................................................. 140 5.1.2 Christianity and cultural practices .................................................... 146 5.2 Rituals in Wufeng ........................................................................................ 149 5.2.1 Carnivalisation of PaSta’ay .............................................................. 150 5.2.2 Pslkawtas day and night: The revolving stage of cultural practice .. 153 5.2.3 Impure Xiaomijiu .............................................................................