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Quick Guide to Taiwan Aborigines

About 500,000 people in Taiwan (about 2% of the island's whole population) are identified with various "aboriginal tribes," for which the polite term "first nations" (yuánzhù mín 原住民), is locally used in Chinese. It is sometimes borrowed into English in transcription (usually spelled "Yuanzhumin" or "Yuenchumin") to avoid what some English writers suspect may be a derrogatory haze forming over the etymologically reasonable term "aborigines." Previously the expression "high mountain brethren" (gāoshān tóngbāo 高山同胞) was the politically correct, if vaguely silly, Chinese term. (Yet earlier, strongly derrogatory Chinese terms are no longer in common use.)

These peoples are traditionally divided into nine "mountain" peoples and various peoples of the plains largely rendered extinct through intermarriage into the majority population and loss of tribal languages and identities. The revived respectability, even fashionability, of aboriginal tribal membership in and after the 1990s has led, as in other countries, to some previously "extinct" groups reappearing, and in some cases gaining legal definition and associated legal rights.

Different English and Chinese names have been used for these indigenous peoples of Taiwan, although usage has largely standardized in recent decades. This page provides a quick terminology guide and a few brief notes to help make sense of the jumble of terms.

1. Mountain Tribes (Gāoshān Zú 高山族)

1.1 North

Atayal = Tàiyă 泰雅 (formerly also Tàiyé'ĕr 泰耶爾).
Nuclear families; bilateral descent. (MORE)
There are three subgroups of Atayal:
Pop. (excluding Truku & Sedeq) 81,300 in 2007.
Pop. (Truku and Sedeq only) 23,500 in 2007.
Saisiat = Sàixià 賽夏, (formerly also Shīshè 獅設, Sàisàtè 賽薩特).
Extended families; patrilineal descent. (MORE)
Pop. 5,500 in 2007.
map

1.2 Central

Bunun = Bùnóng 布農 (formerly also Bùnú 布奴).
Sedentary agriculture. Patrilineal clans. (MORE)
Pop. 49,000 in 2007.
Tsou = Zōu 鄒 (formerly also Cáo 曹).
An offshoot of Tsou are called Kănàbù 卡那布 another offshoot is called Sà'àlŭ 薩阿魯 or Shā'àlŭ'à 沙阿魯阿. (Saaroa or Sa'aurua).
Foraging. Patrilineal clans. (MORE)
Pop. 6,500 in 2007.

1.3 South

Paiwan = Páiwān 排灣.
Aristocratic social classes, wood carving, artisan industries. (MORE)
Pop. 83,400 in 2007.
Rukai = Lŭkăi 魯凱.
Aristocratic social classes, artisan industries. (MORE)
Pop. 11,400 in 2007.
Yami = Yămĕi 雅美 (formerly also Yémĕi 耶美).
Located on Botel Tobago Island (Lányŭ Dăo 蘭嶼島).
Aristocratic social classes, artisan industries. (MORE)
Pop. 3,300 in 2007.

1.4 Eastern Plains Tribes

Puyuma = Bēinán 卑南.
Táidōng 台東 plain
Sedentary agriculture, matrilineal descent, age-group stratification, strong men's groups. (MORE)
Pop. 10,900 in 2007.
Ami = Āmĕi 阿美 (formerly also Āméi 阿眉).
Yílán 宜蘭 plain.
Sedentary agriculture, matrilineal descent, age-group stratification, strong men's groups. (MORE)
Pop. 172,700 in 2007.
(Formerly classed with the Ami, but granted tribal status in 2007, are the Sakizaya (or Sakiraya or Sakidaya) = Sāqíláiyǎ 撒奇萊雅 of Huālián 花蓮County. Pop. 48 in 2007.)

2. Former Plains Tribes (Píngpŭ Zú = 坪埔族)

Miscellaneous Vocabulary

Batan = Bādān = 巴丹
A tribe in the Northern Philippines closely related to the Yami. It is said that the Batan and Yami languages are, at least to some degree, mutually comprehensible.
cooked savages = shúfān, shóufān = 熟番
Old term for reformed headhunting tribes.
raw savages = shēngfān = 生番
Old term for headhunting tribes.
tribe = zúqún = 族群
Generic term for a "tribe," at least as ambiguous in Chinese as in English. In mainland parlance it contrasts with a "minority group" (shăoshù mínzú 少數民族). For mainland official purposes, all Taiwan aboriginal groups are classified as "Gāoshān Zú 高山族" (Mountain Tribes) and are regarded as ethnically homogeneous.

Sources:

The 2007 population numbers, slightly rounded as presented here, are calculated from data presented in Taiwan Panorama (台灣光華雜誌), May 2008, pp. 54-55.

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