Frank Muyard 梅豪方
The Emergence of Indigenous Archaeology in Taiwan
Since the 1980s, indigenous peoples’ relationships with archaeological institutions have evolved across the world leading to the development of the sub-discipline of Indigenous archaeology in several North American and Pacific countries characterized by a history of settler colonialism. This has allowed, on one hand, a greater participation by indigenous peoples in the archaeological study of “their” prehistory and protohistory, with agreements or laws regulating the respective rights of Indigenous communities and outsider scholars over the remains and the artifacts excavated (like NAGPRA (1990) in the United States). On the other hand, it has spurred an increased reflexivity among archaeologists about the cultural and political aspects of their scientific discipline, and the partial integration of alternative historical knowledge and perspectives on the past and on the land which are traditionally carried in indigenous peoples’ culture and institutions, like oral history, landscape and environmental knowledge, and spiritual relationship with ancient times and peoples.
In Taiwan, another society defined by modern settler colonialism with constitutionally recognized indigenous peoples, Indigenous archaeology has only emerged as a proper field of research in the last ten years and remains to be institutionalized. This presentation aims thus to shed some light on the current state of the sub-discipline in the country, its links with previous pioneering studies about the relationships between prehistoric and protohistoric archaeological cultures and contemporary Austronesian indigenous peoples, and the progress achieved in this field, as well as the limits and the complex issues Indigenous archaeology projects are facing in today's Taiwanese society.
In Taiwan, another society defined by modern settler colonialism with constitutionally recognized indigenous peoples, Indigenous archaeology has only emerged as a proper field of research in the last ten years and remains to be institutionalized. This presentation aims thus to shed some light on the current state of the sub-discipline in the country, its links with previous pioneering studies about the relationships between prehistoric and protohistoric archaeological cultures and contemporary Austronesian indigenous peoples, and the progress achieved in this field, as well as the limits and the complex issues Indigenous archaeology projects are facing in today's Taiwanese society.