Febr
uary 12. Most of my life I have been fascinated by cultural history of people in general and people as individuals. I'm not sure why ancient clothing, buildings, tools, implements, or other relics and artifacts can so totally absorb my attention, but they can. My curiosity is insatiable when it comes to "knowing" about how these ancients lived. Every little knot or curve or "way of doing a thing" is a clue as to how people survived, how
and what they created and who they were. It is incredulous to me that the arts are not valued in much of America when the arts of a culture are often the main, if not the "only" evidence we have of who these people were and what they knew, how they thought and lived among themselves as well as with others. So.... the aboriginal village was a delight for me. Unfortunately, it was too much to take in during the time we had allowed for the village, so I will likely need to go back one day to see more. There are two things I should explain. First, the aboriginal people
only make up about 2%
of the population currently living in Taiwan and of those 2% there are at least 10 different tribes of aboriginal people. Second, this IS Taiwan where they believe in g
oing "all out" when they do anything... so the Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village not only includes highly informative educational background on each of the tribes represented, but also has interwoven an amusement park throughout the area of the village. Personally, I can't quite rationalize the experience of two so completely different tourist attractions, but who am I to criticize? It works for the Taiwanese. Come to think of it, Cedar Point Amusement Park back in Ohio also has areas where frontier exhibits and simulations are given. You will see a few photos here of the village. Next post I may even give a little background on the tribes, which spoke Austronesian languages and represent Malay-Polynesian cultures physically. Several of my students have done reports fo
r me on the Aboriginal people of Taiwan and I have learned quite a bit about the differences in the tribes from those reports. heh-heh, one of the tribes had so many more men than women that the women were able to pick and chose on a daily basis if needed. If the wife got tired of the man she just threw him out and they were "divorced." heh-heh. Those husbands didn't sit back and expect to be waited on hand and foot, either. Nor
did they go off in search of younger, more attractive women. I can't imagine what that must have been like as a society, but I would like to know more. On a side note, think about this: because China has a "1 child" policy, a
nd in China, (as in most cultures)
a male child is much more highly valued than a female child, promoting abortions of females, what will this mean to the future of society in China? Because The Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village is located in Nantou County, on the edge of Sun Moon Lake, it is the area of the Thao tribe of indigenous people. Up until the 19th century, the Thao tribe claimed the area of Sun Moon Lake completely. Not surprisingly though, Chinese began to enter the area and the diseases they brought with them began to claim the lives and the powe
r of the
Thao tribe. (sound familiar?) Many Thao began to leave the lake area for more remote and safe areas. To make matters worse for the Thao, the Japanese found Sun Moon Lake to be a resource they wanted during their occupation of Taiwan.
While the Japanese were quite industrious in Taiwan, in this case making hydroelectric development for Nantou, it did serve to disrupt more the the Thao from the area and caused a major relocation for the few remaining tribespeople.
uary 12. Most of my life I have been fascinated by cultural history of people in general and people as individuals. I'm not sure why ancient clothing, buildings, tools, implements, or other relics and artifacts can so totally absorb my attention, but they can. My curiosity is insatiable when it comes to "knowing" about how these ancients lived. Every little knot or curve or "way of doing a thing" is a clue as to how people survived, how
and what they created and who they were. It is incredulous to me that the arts are not valued in much of America when the arts of a culture are often the main, if not the "only" evidence we have of who these people were and what they knew, how they thought and lived among themselves as well as with others. So.... the aboriginal village was a delight for me. Unfortunately, it was too much to take in during the time we had allowed for the village, so I will likely need to go back one day to see more. There are two things I should explain. First, the aboriginal people 
only make up about 2% 
of the population currently living in Taiwan and of those 2% there are at least 10 different tribes of aboriginal people. Second, this IS Taiwan where they believe in g
oing "all out" when they do anything... so the Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village not only includes highly informative educational background on each of the tribes represented, but also has interwoven an amusement park throughout the area of the village. Personally, I can't quite rationalize the experience of two so completely different tourist attractions, but who am I to criticize? It works for the Taiwanese. Come to think of it, Cedar Point Amusement Park back in Ohio also has areas where frontier exhibits and simulations are given. You will see a few photos here of the village. Next post I may even give a little background on the tribes, which spoke Austronesian languages and represent Malay-Polynesian cultures physically. Several of my students have done reports fo
r me on the Aboriginal people of Taiwan and I have learned quite a bit about the differences in the tribes from those reports. heh-heh, one of the tribes had so many more men than women that the women were able to pick and chose on a daily basis if needed. If the wife got tired of the man she just threw him out and they were "divorced." heh-heh. Those husbands didn't sit back and expect to be waited on hand and foot, either. Nor 
did they go off in search of younger, more attractive women. I can't imagine what that must have been like as a society, but I would like to know more. On a side note, think about this: because China has a "1 child" policy, and in China, (as in most cultures) 
a male child is much more highly valued than a female child, promoting abortions of females, what will this mean to the future of society in China? Because The Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village is located in Nantou County, on the edge of Sun Moon Lake, it is the area of the Thao tribe of indigenous people. Up until the 19th century, the Thao tribe claimed the area of Sun Moon Lake completely. Not surprisingly though, Chinese began to enter the area and the diseases they brought with them began to claim the lives and the power of the
Thao tribe. (sound familiar?) Many Thao began to leave the lake area for more remote and safe areas. To make matters worse for the Thao, the Japanese found Sun Moon Lake to be a resource they wanted during their occupation of Taiwan. While the Japanese were quite industrious in Taiwan, in this case making hydroelectric development for Nantou, it did serve to disrupt more the the Thao from the area and caused a major relocation for the few remaining tribespeople.
1 comment:
Amazing photos Cheryl.
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