講題：Birds, Ghosts, and Ancestors: Ecological Ontologies on Formosa and Pongso no Tao (Orchid Island)

講者：Scott Simon (Professor of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa)

時間：2024/5/8（三）15：00-17：00，會後有happy hour（限人類所師生參與）

地點：清華大學人社院C304教室

主辦單位：清華大學人類學研究所

合辦單位：清大世界南島暨原住民族中心

摘要：The ontological turn in anthropology highlights the question of what exists in the world. One fruitful way of exploring this diversity is the formula of French anthropologist Philippe Descola, who proposes that humans relate to other living beings through four distinct ontologies. This study, based on a phenomenological method of walking, taking photos, and simply being with humans as they navigate their worlds, contrasts natural ontologies among two groups of Han Taiwanese in Dingsoa, Chiko, the Truku of north-central Formosa, and the Tao of Pongso no Tao (Orchid Island). Following the insights of Claude Lévi-Strauss that animals are good to think with, this study explores how different ontologies are revealed through the diverse ways in which humans engage with, think about, and represent birds. How do different peoples relate to birds, ghosts, and ancestors? What does ethnography reveal about ontogenesis – the ways in which people create ontologies? What does this mean for the study of human cultural diversity?