Institute of Ethnology

Although formally established in 1965, the Institute of Ethnology traces its origin to 1928 when, under the leadership of Academia Sinica's President Tsai Yuan-Pei, an Ethnology Section was set up within the Institute of Social Sciences in Mainland China. By 1934, the Ethnology Section was transferred to the Institute of History and Philology. Following the Republic of China's move to Taiwan, a preparatory office of the Institute of Ethnology was founded in August 1955. Since this period, the Institute's primary mission has been the study of sociocultural change among the island's aborigines and Han Chinese.

By the mid 1970s, the Institute was primarily composed of researchers from the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and psychology. The Institute has now established itself both as a national and international research center for anthropological and Chinese studies.

When the Institute was formally established in 1965, Dr. Ling Shun-Sheng was appointed as the first director. In 1970, he was succeeded by Professor Li Yih-Yuan. Professor Wen Chung-I took over the position in 1976, followed by Professor Liu Pin-Hsiung in 1982, and Professor Chuang Ying-Chang in 1988. The current director is Dr. Hsu Cheng-Kuang.

RESEARCH

In response to both specialization and interdisciplinary research in anthropology, the Institute was divided into three sections in 1973: Cultural Studies, Behavioral Studies, and Area Studies.

The focus of the Cultural Studies Section includes: eth-nocultural history, ethnography, economic anthropology, religion, kinship and social structure, ethnicity, symbolic anthropology, and folklore. With the expectation of eventually establishing a general sociocultural theory, this section is committed to the study of sociocultural change among ethnic groups in Taiwan and Chinese social structures and development.

With an emphasis on contemporary social problems, the Behavioral Studies Section utilizes the method of inter-disciplinary research to study human culture and behavior. The primary disciplines related to this section were anthropology, sociology and psychology. In July 1995, however, the sociologists at the Institute transferred to a newly established preparatory office of the Institute of Sociology within Academia Sinica. Following these changes, the new focus of the section is on folk religion, social problems, and cultural behavior.

Priests, Puyuma

Due to the close relationship between Taiwan, Southern China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Area Studies Section attempts to gain greater understanding of sociocultural relationships and changes within the region. In keeping with this endeavor, this section has amassed a rich collection of writings, data and material artifacts. Furthermore, with the support of the Major Theme Research Project at Academia Sinica, work has commenced on two long-term studies. The first of these studies centers on tracing social and cultural development and change between the Han Chinese of Fujian Province and Taiwan, while the second project focuses on the cultural and genetic relationship between Taiwan aboriginal groups and Southeast Asian Austronesians.

PERSONNEL AND FACILITIES

PERSONNEL

Currently, the Institute has a research staff of twenty-six, including twenty-two anthropologists, one sociologist, and three psychologists. In an effort to improve the quality of academic research, the Institute has created special positions for seven adjunct research fellows and two correspondence research fellows. At the administrative level, the Institute has a director, a deputy director, three section chiefs, all of whom are regular members of the research staff. In addition, the Institute has eleven administrative personnel.

LIBRARY

Library

The library at the Institute has collections on anthro-pology, sociology, and psychology. The collection in-cludes approximately 100,000 volumes in Chinese and English, 20,000 volumes of bounded periodicals, 1,000 current periodicals, and considerable microfiche and microfilm materials. Other library collections include Human Relations Area Files and archaic land-contract data. These and other data have been transferred to hard-disk and CD-ROM, and are available to individuals with a computer and Internet connection.

MUSEUM

Museum Exhibition

The Institute also has a museum of anthropology named after Dr. Ling Shun-Sheng, the founder of the Institute. The museum's collection includes over 8,000 artifacts from the island's various aboriginal groups, archaeological excavations, as well as folk and religious artifacts of the Han Chinese. The museum also houses artifacts from Southeast Asia and the Pacific as well as audio-video collections of field recordings by researchers at the Institute. Currently, the audio-video room holds 2,700 video-tapes on folk religion and folk art.

COMPUTER FACILITIES

In an attempt to adjust to the rapid growth of the library and video collections, and to promote the exchange of research materials, the Institute has established a com-puterized local area network system. Through Academia Sinica's mainframe, the Institute enjoys access to national and international communication systems.

MAJOR RESULTS OF RESEARCH

Publications

Our research staff have conducted both individual and collective research. In recent years, our researchers have engaged in joint research at both the national and international levels. These joint projects often involve well-known institutions such as Stanford University.

COLLECTIVE PROJECTS

Seminar

• Rural culture and society in Southeastern China;
• Ethnographic and comparative research on Taiwan and Fukien;
• Cultural and genetic similarities among Austronesian peoples in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS

• Ethnographic film (16mm, English version): "Voices of Orchid Island";
• Inauguration ceremonies of the Yami, Botel Tabago;
• Filial dilemmas and their solution types;
• A research on the alien workers of Taipei county;
• Project on Paiwan nose and mouth flutes;
• Cultural contact between Han and non-Han peoples;
• The socializational process of childrens' concept of achievement and their achievement motivation in Taiwanese family;
• Living arrangement of elderly parents and filial atti-tudes;
• The state as cultural-historical formation: An anthro-pological approach;
• Postcolonial cultural identity;
• A sociocultural analysis of problem drinking among four aboriginal groups in Taiwan;
• Agrarian problems of the Southeast Asian countries: Comparative studies of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines;
• Compilation of the gazette of San-Ti-Men township, Ping-Tung county.

CD-ROM Databases

In the past two years, the Institute has published 4 monographs, 5 issues of its Bulletin, 2 issues on Field Materials, and 1 film. The film (Voices on Orchid Island), produced by the Insititute, has won a good reputation both in Taiwan and international film festivals. The mono-graphs include the following titles:

• Ethnicity in Taiwan: social, historical, and cultural perspectives;
• Family and marriage: Hokkien and Hakka villages in North Taiwan;
• Social survey and analysis: The first interdisciplinary symposium on research methods in the social sciences
• Space, power and society.

RESEARCH STAFF

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