Seeking the Koko' Ta'ay

Investigating the Origins of Little People Myths in Taiwan and Beyond
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-70833-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 02, 286 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 599 g

Reihe: Brill Series in Taiwan Studies

This volume, edited by Tobie Openshaw and Dean Karalekas, will guide you on a multidisciplinary journey through Indigenous peoples’ centuries-old lore of “little people” in Taiwan and the Pacific. Learn about the Taiwan SaiSiyat people’s paSta’ay ritual, still held to this day to commemorate the koko ta’ay. Follow the distribution of the legends, interspersed with original stories by modern Indigenous authors. Explore the archaeological find of small-statured negrito remains in Taiwan, and delve into the most current research on the topic by linguists, anthropologists, folklorists, and other specialists to unravel the mystery of what—or who—inspired these ancient legends.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Openshaw, Tobie

Karalekas, Dean

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Ethnographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Physische Anthropologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword

Sharing Legends of Short-Statured People across Space and Time

David Blundell

Acknowledgements

Tobie Openshaw

List of Figures and Tables

Acronyms

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

Myth and Mystery

Tobie Openshaw

1 The Vanishing Dwarf

Domas Ayang

2 Pre-Neolithic Populations as Inspiration for Taiwan’s Mythical Little People

A Survey of the Available Evidence

Paul Jen-kuei Li

3 Tracing Negritos and Their Paths in Ancient Taiwan

New Findings Raise More Questions

Hsiao-chun Hung, Hirofumi Matsumura, and Mike T. Carson

4 Do Formosanisms in Austronesian Languages Originate from a Substrate of Taiwan’s Earliest Inhabitants?

Roger Blench

5 Negrito Populations of Insular and Peninsular Southeast Asia

P. Bion Griffin

6 Ljeljeman and Her Short Friends

Kereker Palakurulj

7 The Place of koko’ ta’ay among the Saisiyat People

The Origin of the Legend and Its Instantiation in the PaSta’ay

Liu Yu-ling

8 Ritual Tools, Ritual Songs, and the ta’ay

A Lexicon of the PaSta’ay

Lancini Jen-hao Cheng

9 A History of Research into the Little People

Finding Patterns in the Formosan Dwarf Legends

Liu Yu-ling

10 Makasino

Lulyang Nomin

11 The Primordial Little People Tale-Type

Tracing Pacific Dwarf Myths throughout the Austronesian Expansion

Dean Karalekas

12 What Ancient Taiwanese Negritos Might Tell Us about Mystery Hominoids in Indonesia

Gregory Forth

13 Walking with Dvorovoi

A History of European Imagery of Little People

Igor Sitnikov

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Tobie Openshaw, Affiliated Research Fellow, Centre of Austronesian Studies, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). Tobie has engaged with the topic of the ta’ay alongside SaiSiyat elders for over a decade. He lectures on Indigenous issues and documentary filmmaking in Taipei.

Dean Karalekas, Ph.D. (2016), Affiliated Research Fellow, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), has edited several academic books and is the author of Civil-Military Relations in Taiwan: Identity and Transformation (Emerald Publishing, 2018) and The Men in No Man's Land: A Journey Into Bir Tawil (2020).