Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Exhibition on the Yami, an aboriginal group from Taiwan

yuanzhumin · 14th January 2010, 02:55 AM

You'll have the time to go, Kukulza ! The exhibition will remain open for nearly one year. I guess you'll find the opportunity to come back before October, when it's ending. By the way, I recommand a nice aborigine restaurant just 5 mn away from the Shisanhang Museum where to stop for a lunch/dinner with friends, with live Taiwan aboriginal music. There, you can enjoy a saute of betel flower, glutinous millet wrapped into wild vegetable leaves, BBqed wild mountain pigs or flying squirrels, and many other great dishes. Don't forget the delicious but sometimes dangerous xiao mi jiu (millet alcohol) !
Talking about drinking, Kukulza, you're right to underline the big differences between the Yami and the other Taiwan aborigines group. The Yami didn't drink alcohol when, on the other hand, this tradition is very strong among the Taiwan island aborigines that are used to drink xiao mi jiu (millet alcohol), with a strong religious dimension. To the Taiwan island aborigines, drinking alcohol is closely associated with worshiping the spirits, the ancestors and headhunting. Even today, many Taiwan aborigines put their fingers into their glass of alcohol before drinking it, and then snap it into the air to share the few falling drops with the spirit of the ancestors. Headhunting, as you mentioned, is also something that the Yami didn't do.
If Orchid Island, better known formerly under the name of Botel Tobago, is today territorially dependent from Taiwan, it is in fact ethnically closer to the Philippines. The Yami are close relatives of the people living on the other side of the Bashi Channel, on the northern littoral of Luzon, Northern Philippines, and most probably came from there few hundred years ago. But anyway, all of them were coming from Taiwan when they first arrived in the Philippines, few thousand years ago.
Inez de Beauclair, a French German ethnologist that lived among the Yami in the 40s, wrote a very interesting paper on their fighting weapons and traditions. By the way, I lost the link to her article online, and it would really be great if someone could communicate it to me. It would be also worthwhile to make it permanent in the links list of the this forum. Just a suggestion !

14th January 2010, 02:55 AM	#3
yuanzhumin Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ex-Taipei, Taiwan, now in Shanghai, China Posts: 180	the Yami of Botel Tobago/Orchid Island You'll have the time to go, Kukulza ! The exhibition will remain open for nearly one year. I guess you'll find the opportunity to come back before October, when it's ending. By the way, I recommand a nice aborigine restaurant just 5 mn away from the Shisanhang Museum where to stop for a lunch/dinner with friends, with live Taiwan aboriginal music. There, you can enjoy a saute of betel flower, glutinous millet wrapped into wild vegetable leaves, BBqed wild mountain pigs or flying squirrels, and many other great dishes. Don't forget the delicious but sometimes dangerous xiao mi jiu (millet alcohol) ! Talking about drinking, Kukulza, you're right to underline the big differences between the Yami and the other Taiwan aborigines group. The Yami didn't drink alcohol when, on the other hand, this tradition is very strong among the Taiwan island aborigines that are used to drink xiao mi jiu (millet alcohol), with a strong religious dimension. To the Taiwan island aborigines, drinking alcohol is closely associated with worshiping the spirits, the ancestors and headhunting. Even today, many Taiwan aborigines put their fingers into their glass of alcohol before drinking it, and then snap it into the air to share the few falling drops with the spirit of the ancestors. Headhunting, as you mentioned, is also something that the Yami didn't do. If Orchid Island, better known formerly under the name of Botel Tobago, is today territorially dependent from Taiwan, it is in fact ethnically closer to the Philippines. The Yami are close relatives of the people living on the other side of the Bashi Channel, on the northern littoral of Luzon, Northern Philippines, and most probably came from there few hundred years ago. But anyway, all of them were coming from Taiwan when they first arrived in the Philippines, few thousand years ago. Inez de Beauclair, a French German ethnologist that lived among the Yami in the 40s, wrote a very interesting paper on their fighting weapons and traditions. By the way, I lost the link to her article online, and it would really be great if someone could communicate it to me. It would be also worthwhile to make it permanent in the links list of the this forum. Just a suggestion !