Norbert Ying-Hsiung Pu: Ritual und Mythos in der Tradition der Tsou. Dargestellt am Beispiel der Toten- und Bestattungsriten
Abstract
This article is a summary of my 1999 master’s thesis based on research conducted in the 1990s, in which I examine ritual and myth in the tradition of the Tsou, an indigenous people in Taiwan. The traditional culture of the Tsou is undergoing dramatic change as a result of encounters with other cultures. The Christian mission in the Tsou area did not begin until 1953-1959. The Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini, SVD, also known as the Steyler Missionaries) was the first Catholic missionary order to enter the Tsou territory. The people continue to be assisted by the Steyler Missionaries to this day. About one third of the Tsou have become Catholic. As I demonstrate in this study, the mission among the Tsou is in the phase of striving for an inculturation into the local reality. The outward expression of funeral and burial rites among the Tsou is no longer traditional, as Christian and Chinese ritual elements have been incorporated. The effort to understand the traditional cultural heritage and the new forms of expression in the Christian rites represents a great challenge for the new missionaries and native priests in the current mission in the Tsou area.
[Taiwan, the Tsou, Indigenous peoples, funeral rites, Catholic mission, inculturation]
