外媒：期待台灣重現南島語族搖籃的驕傲！

http://www.peoplenews.tw/news/2362e990-1285-4fba-ba06-460b2d154186

外媒：期待台灣重現南島語族搖籃的驕傲！

許銘洲/編譯 2017-03-26 22:00

台灣福爾摩沙語群位居南島語系之首。
圖片/2011年 Maulucioni繪圖//Wikimedia Commons

台灣英文新聞》（Taiwan News）發表一篇專文，名為「台中觀點，台灣民族大融爐：過去與未來的南島語族國家」（The View from Taichung: Taiwan as Melting Pot: the once and future Austronesian state）。內容述及台灣中研院歷史語言研究所與西班牙考古團隊，聯合於基隆港東北社寮地區和平島，針對350年以前西班牙要塞聖薩爾瓦多城（Fort San Salvador）附近墓園，進行的考古挖掘工作。目前初步發現，該墓穴的遺體，有歐洲人，台灣當地住民，以及可能被西班牙抓來台灣當奴隸的非洲人。

西班牙時代遺址的考古挖掘，反射出台灣做為民族融合的一束光芒；即台灣民族的基因，來自全球許多人種的匯聚組合。

當1662年，國信爺鄭成功攻佔台南之後，帶來一批非洲人，他們是從葡萄牙手中的接管過來的南非奴隸，打從鄭成功在澳門時候就一路跟隨他。這批黑人忠誠度高，而且有功於引誘荷蘭人的非洲奴隸，逃向鄭成功陣營。那些非洲人以善戰聞名，並娶台灣女性為妻；短暫進入台灣的時空隧道之後，這批黑人消失於我們的歷史記憶庫。或許他們的非洲人血脈、基因，仍遺存在台灣社會，無聲無息成為台灣族群的一部份。

外來族群豐富台灣基因庫

荷蘭人也對台灣民族帶來些許貢獻；當時荷蘭在中國的殖民者，先在中國福建經商殖民，其後轉往台灣，並與台灣的平地原住民通婚混血。台灣的口傳與文獻說得好：「有唐山公，沒唐山嬤」；當時唐山過台灣的漢人，每每透過跟平埔族女性異族通婚，來獲得土地權。除了前述的非洲人之外，西班牙以及荷蘭等外來武裝與軍貿勢力，一樣「有男無女」，這些外族的基因，同樣卻在台灣子孫的血液，把種族基因留下來。

南島語族本來就是個「混種族群」的四處移居者；該族群從北方下來，抵達南方中國，並與南方民眾混雜居住，這些人概稱之為「南島族群」（Austronesian Peoples），跟台灣的原住民類似。數10年來，學界持續針對南中國，以及香港的「船民」（boat peoples）族群判讀問題爭論不休。一些學者認為，那些以船為家的「船民」，是原始南島語族所遺留下來的生活習性；而且人類歷史上，沒有其它族群是像他們這般以船為家過活。

今天有人留意到，一些台灣人娶越南女性為妻，並將之視為台灣多元文化的樣貌之一。不過，17世紀的國姓爺早就引進數千名來自越南、其它東南亞的女子，為其部隊增添繁衍生力軍。越南曾是「南島族」的文化區域；今天則透過更多越南媳婦，將其祖先的南島基因，帶進台灣社會。

作者特登在專文內容表示，當某些記者在報導中傳達台灣人是「中國漢族」一支；或是某記者人自認為擁有「台灣血統」觀點，都得以提供反省素材；結果他發覺這類口號，往往是空洞的「政治建構」，目的在於 蓄意宣誓其民族主義立場，此即：透過「中國人」的身份認同，讓他們自我感覺良好，用中台終將統一，而非台灣可能遭併吞的鴕鳥心態，來自我麻痺。另外，有些人宣稱，台灣與中國有深度「歷史連帶」關係；實際上這類觀點並不正確，台灣與中國漢族的關係，根本不到400年；台灣與南島語族的「經貿」與「移居遷徙」歷史網絡，則長達數千年之久；從台灣移居出去的南島語族，足跡範圍廣及半個地球，從東非的馬達加斯加，紐西蘭（詳見「紐西蘭毛利人是台灣人後裔確定了！」一文），以及美國夏威夷，都有相關口傳淵源以及語言遺跡。

如今台灣與中國經貿的高度依賴關係，並非歷史發展的必然性；而是從荷蘭，延伸至明清帝國以降，一些複雜意外事件，所帶來的影響。用比喻來說，台灣本來像是「偉大海洋航行事業」搖籃，也是長期南向貿易網絡的參與者，所以很容易成為眾所矚目的爭奪目標；台灣在近代的歷史因緣際會，不幸無法讓從外來包圍之下，掙脫出來。

重新認識台灣南島民族的驕榮

「南島語族」發源地台灣，吸引許多人在這塊土地混血，並不斷擴散出去。此一事實，讓蔡英文總統決定採取雄辯的獨特認同觀，來取代台灣「中華屬性」的歪曲言論，並有助重新擬訂台灣與東南亞國家的發展關係。數千年來的南島語族，在台灣留下的烙印既深且廣，從食物傳統、地方聚落樣貌、地名，到風俗傳承，都有他們留下的足跡。

許多南島語族在台灣所留下的刻痕，已經消失，或遭誤讀。例如，美國人類學者弗蘭克·貝薩克（Frank Bessec），1960年代曾在埔里鎮進行田野調查，他發現許多「漢人」婦女在農田工作，而男人卻不愛田間農事；該學者將該現象，歸諸於台灣從中國引入老舊的習俗傳統（譯註：恰恰相反，這正是埔里平埔人留存的母系社會特色，女人掌握主權，能者多勞。）另外，位於台中市北邊的大雅，一位作者朋友告訴特登指出，當地社區有一群民眾，將亡故家人埋藏在自家庭院；此為原住民文化遺存的迴響；過去台灣原住民習俗，會將亡者埋在自家房屋的地底下。另一位友人，也向作者表示，他與一位女性結婚，她的祖母曾向她提及一個失落意義的南島語用詞，這位祖母說她懂得如何發音，卻已不知其義。

19世紀大量的中國漢人來到台灣，他們驚嘆於平埔文化裡面，女性所佔有的尊高地位。今天的台灣人，則驚奇於台灣女性在政治領域的數量與活躍性；此與對岸中國政權，女性在政治活動毫無影響力，構成鮮明對比。作者提問道：莫非這就是原住民文化對台灣的廣泛影響，長期延續至今天的成果？

台灣過往曾是南島語族國家，未來也將承先啟後，繼續往這個方向邁進？當台商發現在中國越來越困難經營，於是將工廠轉移到東南亞，一些古老的南島語系國家，像是印尼、越南；當蔡英文政權致力於發展南向政策（即南島語族擴散地的西南半部）；這類發展概念導向，曾經錯失遺忘，如今又重新被找回來。

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3124444

The View from Taichung: Taiwan as Melting Pot: the once and future Austronesian state

By Michael A. Turton,Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

2017/03/24 09:34

International Business Times reported this week on the ongoing excavations at the cemetery near the site of the old Spanish fort on Hoping Island in Keelung harbor. The article observed: “The cemetery contains bodies from Europeans, local Taiwanese people and possibly people of African origin brought to the island as slaves.”

This little comment shines a sudden beam of light on the ethnic mélange that constitutes what today we call “Taiwanese”: the people of a nation whose genes come from everywhere on earth.

When Koxinga attacked Tainan, he brought a unit of Africans, former Portuguese slaves taken from South Africa who had come over to him in Macao. They served him with fierce loyalty and helped entice Africans in Dutch slavery to run away to Koxinga. They were known for their fighting prowess. Many of them took Han wives. After fighting for Koxinga they passed out of historical knowledge. Perhaps they remained in Taiwan, their genes slipping quietly into the local population.

The Dutch too made a few contributions, but it was the settlers from China who brought over their own complex ancestry and mixed with the indigenous people of Taiwan. “There are many Chinese men,” the old saying went, “but no Chinese women,” a variant of which runs that there are Chinese grandfathers, but no Chinese grandmothers. Incoming Chinese males acquired wives and land by intermarrying with the local aborigines.

These settlers were themselves a mix of people who moved down into southern China from the north, and mixed with the population of southern China, many of whom were Austronesian just like Taiwan’s aborigines. Indeed, scholars have been arguing for decades that the boat peoples of south China and Hong Kong may well be remnants of the original Austronesians, who were people of the boat like no other in human history.

Today people often note that Taiwanese men acquire Vietnamese wives as testimony to how multicultural Taiwan is, but Koxinga imported thousands of women from Vietnam and elsewhere in SE Asia for his female-short troops. Of course Vietnam was once part of the Austronesian cultural area, and the Vietnamese wives of today carry the genes of their Austronesian forebearers.

I often reflect on these facts when I read some reporter describing the people of Taiwan as “ethnic Chinese” or when people refer to themselves as having "Taiwanese blood." These ideas are vapid political constructs whose intent is overtly nationalistic: to claim a people is “ethnic Chinese” is to veer dangerously close to arguing that Beijing should be annexing them. Or when people write about Taiwan’s “deep historical links to China”, actually less than four centuries old, but ignore Taiwan’s thousands of years of historical links to Austronesian peoples and trade and emigration networks that spanned half the globe, from Madagascar to New Zealand and Hawaii.  

It is not a historical inevitability that Taiwan has deep trade links with China, but a complex accident of Dutch, Ming, and Qing imperialism. Rather, Taiwan is the cradle of a great seagoing expansion, and a longtime participant in southward-looking trade networks. The Qing era is a blip in time compared to that, but sadly, a blip in recent historical time.

The Austronesian roots of Taiwan, and the many peoples who have blended here, can provide the Tsai Administration with a rhetorical alternative to the “Chineseness” of Taiwan, one that can help reposition Taiwan toward southeast Asia: Taiwan, the once and future Austronesian nation. For the Austronesian influence on Taiwan is vast, leaving its mark in everything from the shapes of local communities and local place names, to food traditions and many customary practices.

Much of this has disappeared or been misidentified. For example, Frank Bessec, who did field research in the Puli area in the 1960s, writes of local “Han” whose women worked in the fields but whose men were averse to farmwork. He attributed that to an archaic practice brought over from China by the Han, but this arrangement is far more likely to be indigenous in origin. In Daya north of Taichung city, a friend tells me, there’s a group of families who bury their dead in the yard, an echo of the aboriginal practice of burying the dead beneath the house. A friend of mine married into a family who address their grandmother using an old aborigine term for her, and didn’t even realize it.

In the 19th century Chinese visitors to Taiwan marveled at the high status of women in aboriginal culture. Today we continue to marvel at the number of women in Taiwan’s political life, compared to the paucity of females in positions of power across the Strait. The long reach of aboriginal influence continuing down to the present day?

In some ways Tsai, herself part aborigine, is ideally positioned to posit Taiwan as an Austronesian ocean nation with its own identity, the heir to centuries of trade networks to the south and beyond. Yet Taiwan cannot begin the process of building an alternative Taiwanese image with a strong Austronesian base until it fully embraces its own aboriginal peoples and their struggle for lands and recognition. It must also recover, identify, and reconstruct the aboriginal influence on Taiwan culture, and present it in a way that makes it comprehensible to both locals and outsiders.

Taiwan, the once and future Austronesian nation? As Taiwan’s businesses find China ever more difficult and shift their factories to ancient Austronesian areas like Vietnam and Indonesia, as the current Administration pursues a policy of promoting trade links across the western half of the Austronesian expansion, it’s an idea out of time whose time has at last arrived.