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WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Sacred Migration and Charisma: Subjectivity, Spatiality, and Indigenous Knowledge Practices of Transnational Paiwan People.

presenters

    Fasa Namoh

    Nationality: Taiwan

    Residence: Taiwan

    National Taiwan University

    Presence:Face to Face/ On Site

Previous studies on Taiwanese indigenous peoples rarely discussed the overseas migration of the indigenous peoples under the influence of transnationalism. Over the past five decades, the Taiwanese indigenous peoples have traversed from their local communities to overseas communities, from traditional, rural, and agricultural societies to urban, industrial, and commercial societies. Subsequently, the migration model expanded to overseas migration. They are diverse, cross-border, and cross-cultural experiences include those associated with their personal religious beliefs, such as those related to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and their familiarity with the Church. Identifying the context of the indigenous peoples' development in Belize can facilitate improving the quality of life of indigenous people in Belize. Through a field study in Belize, this study explores how contemporary Christianity articulates the transnationalism discourse through indigenous peoples, analyzing how the Belize society as a "place" for the migration of Taiwanese indigenous peoples from place to the possibility of cultural reterritorialization, indigenous peoples as mobile migrants drift between religious transnationalism and mobile societies. First, the core question of this research is to explore how they, as members of the Austronesian people, reinterpreted the cultural performance and logic of the Paiwan people in Belize. Second, compared to my previous studies on the Paiwan people in Taiwan, which developed across the border to Belize, the Paiwan people were autonomous and family-based immigration organizations. Third, this research will also focus on the Paiwan peoples of different generations. How did they understand the immigration experience and history of "fleeing to Belize"? Finally, the question explores how the working-class Paiwan people in Taiwan continued their original work skills and accumulated their economic and cultural capital in Belize society.

Keywords:

Belize, Paiwan people, Transnationalism, Christian movement, Reterritorialization