Among the Head-Hunters of Formosa

by Janet B. Montgomery McGovern

The granaries, in which the year’s harvest of millet is stored, are also under the charge of women, who deal out daily supplies of millet to the women of the different families comprising the tribal group. It seems tabu for men, certainly of the Taiyal tribe, to approach very near these millet store-houses.

To just what cause the women of the Formosan aborigines owe their ascendancy it would be difficult to say. As a people the aborigines have reached the stage of “hoe-culture”—a stage which Deniker and some other anthropologists sharply differentiate from “true agriculture” (i.e. with the plough), and which usually precedes the pastoral stage, whereas “true agriculture” follows it. Certainly this precedence of order of culture is true of the Formosans (the aborigines). They have no flocks or herds, no beasts of draught or of burden; they are strictly in the “hunting stage” of civilization as regards the men; yet the women scratch the ground with a short-handled primitive hoe, and thus raise millet and sweet potatoes, besides digging away the rankest of the weeds from about the roots of the tobacco plants. Whether being concerned with the raising and storing of the staples of life—millet and sweet potatoes—and with the gathering and curing of the tobacco-leaves and the making of wine—life’s luxuries—has given women the ascendancy which they undoubtedly possess is a question. Personally I should be inclined to think it had (on the principle that he who holds the purse-strings—or the equivalent—holds the power). But Lowie, the American anthropologist, with some force of argument, warns of the danger of too hastily assuming that an agricultural stage (“hoe-culture” or other) of civilization necessarily implies “matri-potestas,” pointing out the fact that among the Andaman Islanders, who are in the most primitive “hunting stage,” women hold a far higher position than among the present agricultural peoples of India and of many other parts of the world.[61]

It may be that the “equal rights” (or superior rights) position of the aboriginal women of Formosa is due to causes partly racial, for in Guam, an island of the Marianne, or Ladrone, group also inhabited by a people evidently of Indonesian extraction, the same state of affairs seems to exist as regards the relation of the sexes. In Formosa this certainly is not due to contact with a superior race, for among both Chinese and Japanese—as is generally known—the woman is regarded as being distinctly inferior to him who is with these races very literally “lord and master.”

To whatever cause may be ascribed the dominance of the aboriginal Formosan woman in both political and religious life—closely interwoven as these are—the result seems to make for the happiness of all concerned, within the tribal group. Disputes within the group are of infrequent occurrence. When these do occur, they are almost always settled either by the queen, or chief-priestess alone, or by a “palaver” or meeting of remonstrance on the part of all the elderly women of the group. Theft within the group seems unknown among any of the tribes; this also applies to those who are accepted as guests of the tribal group. Guests are regarded by them as friends, and the fidelity in friendship of these “Naturvölker” is touching; as is also their point of view regarding the sacredness of a promise. This is especially true of the Taiyal and the other mountain tribes who have come but little into contact with either Chinese or Japanese.

Regarding property rights among the Chin-huan (primitive or “green” savages): all the members of each tribal group hold in common both hunting-grounds and the grounds used for the cultivation of millet, sweet potatoes, and tobacco—and more recently rice, since this has been introduced by the Japanese. No dispute in connection with communal property ever seems to arise. It is understood that each man who is physically able will take part in the hunting, and thus contribute his share toward keeping the group supplied with meat. Equally it is understood that every woman not ill or aged will take part in the cultivation, harvesting, and storing of food-stuffs. Millet and sweet potatoes are kept in common store-houses, and—as explained in another connection—these are given out by women who have charge of the store-houses to the woman-head of each family, as she may have need of them. The scheme of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” seems to work successfully and without friction among these people.

The only commodity, apparently, which among them is used as currency is salt; and this has been recently introduced by the Japanese. Among those who have never come into contact with the Japanese—that is, those in the inaccessible mountain regions—it is said still to be unknown.[62]

As regards the system of counting in vogue among them, in connection with barter and otherwise, the Chin-huan—excluding those of the Ami and Paiwan tribes, who live on or near the coast, and who have been for some time in contact with the Chinese and Japanese—still count by “hands”: that is, one hand equals five; two hands, ten, etc. Or, occasionally, by a “man”; the latter, one learns in time, being equivalent to twenty, that is, the number of fingers and toes, taken together, belonging to each man.

A striking feature of the social organization of the aborigines is their strict monogamy and their marital fidelity for the duration of the marriage.[63] This custom is in marked contrast with that of many other primitive races—Africans, Australians, Mongols, American Indians: also with that of other Malay and Oceanic peoples, and most of all with that of the Chinese and Japanese. One of the latter, a government official in Formosa, with whom I was thrown into contact in connection with my expeditions into savage territory, pitied the seban (savages) for not having a social organization sufficiently highly developed to have room within it for a geisha system (that of professional singing and dancing girls) and that of a yoshiwara, the latter term being too well known in connection with Japanese cities to make explanation or definition necessary.

Among the “green savages”—those who have not come into close touch with the Chinese and Japanese—adultery is punished with death, an unfaithful husband suffering the same punishment as an unfaithful wife; and prostitution is unknown.