In the production method of staple food, most Gaoshan people like to cook rice or steam glutinous rice and corn flour into cakes and cakes.
Alpine vegetables come from a wide range, most of which are planted and a small amount is collected. Common ones are pumpkin, leek, radish, cabbage, potato, beans, pepper, ginger and various wild vegetables.
Gaoshan people generally love to eat ginger, and some directly use ginger dipped in salt as a dish; Some are pickled with salt and pepper. The source of meat mainly depends on pigs, cows and chickens. Fishing and hunting are also a supplement to daily meat in many areas, especially the Gaoshan people who live in the mountains. Captured prey is almost the main source of daily meat.
Ten ethnic groups of Gaoshan have their own unique foods, among which the typical ones are: bacon, the methods of storing meat by Atayal and Amir of Gaoshan, among which Atayal pickled monkey meat, Amir pickled venison and wild pork are unique; Miscellaneous liquor is a kind of rice wine brewed by Paiwan people and Bunong people of Gaoshan nationality.
When the Bunun people are cooking staple food, they mash the small grains of rice in the pot into paste. People in paiwan like to roll up millet with banana leaves, mix it with peanuts and animal meat, steam it and eat it as a holiday delicacy, and take it with them when they go hunting. However, as a snack brought by hunting, salty spices such as salt are generally not added to the stuffing.
When hunting in the mountains, Atayal people like to use bananas as stuffing, wrap them in glutinous rice, then wrap them in banana leaves, steam them and take them away. Paiwan people like to mix sweet potatoes, cajanus cajan, taro stalks, etc., and eat them when cooked. Atayal people like to drink cold water soaked in ginger or pepper. It is said that this drink has the effect of treating abdominal pain. I used to hunt in the mountains and also had the habit of drinking animal blood. Both men and women are addicted to alcohol and generally drink their own brewed rice wine, such as millet wine, rice wine and potato wine.
Yamei likes to mix rice or porridge with taro and sweet potato and cook it as a staple food. When going out to work or travel, dry taro or cooked sweet potato and glutinous rice products similar to zongzi are often used as dry food. When paiwan and other ethnic groups hunt, they only bring matches, not pots. First, they build stones, heat them with dry firewood, and then put taro, sweet potato and so on. Under the stone, cover it with sand and eat it after cooking. When eating mustard, first remove the growing leaves, rub them with salt, and eat them for two or three days. The mustard roots left in the ground will continue to grow.
Paiwan doesn't eat dogs, snakes and cats. And the way to eat fish is also very unique. Generally, after catching fish, they take a slate and heat it on the spot. They bake the fish on the slate until it is 80% cooked, and sprinkle with salt to eat. Children in paiwan are not allowed to eat eels or even the heads of other fish, which is considered unlucky.
When a-mei cooks meat dishes, she likes to cut the meat into pieces, insert bamboo sticks, cook it and put it in a big pot, and the whole family gathers around the pot. Everyone uses rattan baskets to hold rice, * * * uses a spoon to scoop vegetables, grabs rice in one hand and eats meat in the other. During the transplanting season, they like to catch small frogs in rice fields, take them home, wash them with clear water, cook them and eat them. Some ethnic groups, such as Ami and Atayal, also eat raw fish caught. They also like to peel the hunted millet, add salt and marinate it with half-cooked millet for several months. Pickled foods are usually preserved in several ways, such as pickling, drying in the sun and baking. Pickled pigs and fish for a year or two. Gaoshan people used to drink neither boiled water nor tea. The traditional costumes of Gaoshan nationality are colorful, and the styles of costumes of different nationalities are different.
There are generally four styles of clothing for Gaoshan men: one is the northern style represented by Atayal, Xia Sai and northern Ami. Characterized in that two pieces of linen are sewn together to form a sleeveless coat; The second is the middle type represented by Cao people and Bunong people. Characterized in that deerskin is used as a material, the coat is a deerskin vest with fur, and the coat is a deerskin shawl; The third type is the southern type represented by Paiwan people, Peinan people, Rukai people and southern Ami people. It is characterized by a double-breasted long-sleeved shirt, a waist skirt, or a wide belt hanging down at both ends as a front skirt; The fourth is the elegant beauty of Lan Yu Island. Cover your lower body with a thong made of thick cloth about three or four inches wide.
The clothing types of Gaoshan women are short dresses and long skirts. Generally speaking, there are three kinds: one is the short dress style of Atayal, Cao and A-mei; The second is the narrow-sleeved long skirts of Bunun, Rukai and paiwan; The third is the semi-nude style of Yamei. The upper body often only wears a vest, and the lower body only wears a waist cloth. In winter, a square cloth is wrapped around the left shoulder and tied on the left shoulder.
All ethnic groups in Gaoshan attach importance to decoration. There are many kinds of ornaments, mainly shellfish beads, shellfish slices, glass beads, pig teeth, bear teeth, feathers, hides, flowers, silver and copper jewelry, coins, buttons, bamboo tubes and so on. They use these ornaments to decorate their bodies with dazzling colors. Men, in particular, dress up almost from head to toe. Some men's crowns, especially those of leaders, are even more complicated and colorful than women's.
Sub-regions: sleeveless corsets, shawls, corsets and belts are very common in northern China; Deerskin vest, chest bag, purse, corset and black cloth skirt are common in the middle; Long-sleeved coats, waist skirts, trousers and black headscarves are common in the south.
Yamei's dress is simple. Men cover their nakedness with T-shirts and wear vests. Women usually wear vests and skirts and wrap them in square towels in winter.
In ancient times, the Gaoshan nationality took nudity as beauty. Use only a piece of cloth to shade the shade, and use fur to bind the waist. However, after contact with China culture, men gradually wear gowns, while women wear skirts and pay attention to the beauty of clothes. Except for hides and barks, clothes are mostly made of linen woven by themselves and decorated with colorful patterns.
Gaoshan people mostly choose snake patterns in clothing patterns, daily necessities and handicrafts, which is closely related to their living environment and totem. Because Gaoshan people live in the subtropical zone where snakes are infested, they have a better understanding of the attributes and characteristics of snakes. They regard the centipede snake as the embodiment of the gods, and think that the ancestors' souls are attached to it, so they can't kill it, and worship it as a god.
Gaoshan people also have the custom of body decoration, such as tattooing, tooth cutting, ear piercing, hair removal, abdominal girdling and so on. Body decoration is generally for adulthood, beauty, marriage, discipline and honor. After the mid-1940s, the custom of body decoration gradually declined, but its residual influence still exists. Important festival
Important festivals of Gaoshan nationality include: sowing sacrifices to Atayal nationality (spring sowing ended in late March), peace sacrifices (Bunun nationality, the fourth day of April), ancestor sacrifices of "Ali" (Pingpu nationality, September 16th) and harvest festivals (Zou nationality, Dai nationality, Dawu nationality, etc.). August 15th) and bamboo pole sacrifice (paiwan, October 15th).
Most of the traditional festivals of Gaoshan nationality have a strong religious color and basically appear in the form of sacrificial ceremonies. Such as land reclamation, sowing, weeding, harvest festival, five-year sacrifice, ancestor sacrifice, fishing and hunting sacrifice, dwarf sacrifice, boat sacrifice, flying fish sacrifice and so on. Among them, the Harvest Festival is a national festival of Gaoshan people except Yamei. During the festival, in addition to song and dance banquets, sports competitions, cultural exhibitions and entertainment activities were also added.
Festival Etiquette, Sacrifice and Dietary Customs
Gaoshan people like to hold banquets and song and dance gatherings on festivals or festive days. Every festival, pigs and old cows should be slaughtered, and a banquet should be given to give wine. At the end of the year, Bunun people used the leaves of a plant that ate "Sinoe" and steamed them in glutinous rice for their families to enjoy, to celebrate.
The most representative foods of Gaoshan banquet guests are cakes and bazan made of various glutinous rice. It can be used not only as a holiday snack, but also as a sacrifice. And cooked glutinous rice to entertain guests.
There are many sacrificial activities of Gaoshan people, including ancestor worship, valley worship, mountain worship, hunting worship, wedding worship and harvest worship, among which Paiwan people's five-year sacrifice is the most grand. At that time, besides banquet offerings, there will be various cultural and sports activities. Wedding and banquet scenes are very rich and spectacular, especially a lot of wine should be prepared. At that time, participants drank a lot of alcohol and had the custom of staying drunk. On the day of "Harvest Festival", the clansmen took an altar of wine to the scene, danced around the bonfire, ate and drank, and celebrated the annual labor harvest. People in paiwan often use wooden and beautifully carved mugs on celebration days, and they drink side by side to show their intimacy. If you have guests, you must kill the chicken and treat them. Bunun people leave drumsticks when entertaining guests, and they walk with them when they leave, which means eating drumsticks makes them walk more powerfully. Lu Kairen is good at baking taro with stones as stoves. Baked taro is crisp outside and soft inside, which is easy to carry and often brought to guests to eat on the road. The marriage of Gaoshan people is monogamous, and it is forbidden for close relatives to get married. Most men and women are free to love each other. For example, Atayal people whistle to express their love, and some Ami women give gifts to men's homes to express their love for each other. Young men and women of Gaoshan nationality are very free in love and marriage, and their parents never interfere. When a girl reaches the age of marriage, her family will prepare a separate residence for her.
When paiwan got married, he ground the millet into powder, mixed it with water to make a paste, wrapped it in fish and shrimp (the shrimp showed its tail), kneaded it into balls the size of eggs, put it in a boiling pot, cooked it and took it out. Taboo is a taboo rule with religious significance. It is a negative means to avoid disasters because people are afraid of the forces of nature. Gaoshan people have many taboos in hunting, farming and sacrifice. Its purpose is to avoid imperceptible dangers, especially the occurrence of death, and to maintain normal production and sacrifice activities and social ethics from being affected and interfered. Once the taboo is violated, everyone will feel uneasy because they have a premonition that they may suffer some kind of disaster, and immediately stop all the activities being carried out and adopt methods such as praying, chanting, sprinkling wine and offering sacrifices. Remove possible dangers; Those who violate the ban will be punished, bear all the expenses of the feast, and be executed to make up for it.
Some taboos of Gaoshan nationality are the same, and all tribes must strictly abide by them under any circumstances. Taboos with universal significance are visual, such as: no meeting with the dead and their burial places, no meeting with animals and having sex. Belonging to the sense of touch, such as taboo contact with sacred objects and objects of the dead; Belonging to behavior, such as taboo venting, sneezing, same-sex sexual intercourse, etc. Special taboos, such as: after pregnancy, women are forbidden to use knives and axes, do not eat apes, bobcats, pangolins and fruits, and avoid giving birth to twins; Avoid snakes, bobcats and mice, and cross the dead and their burial places; Women are not allowed to touch hunting tools and weapons used by men, such as bows, arrows, guns and spears. , and are not allowed to enter the men's clubs and sacrificial sites without authorization; Men are not allowed to touch women's looms and raw hemp, and it is forbidden to sleep with women when hunting, fishing or busy farming; Adults are forbidden to contact women during club training; When fishing, hunting or offering sacrifices, you can't cut off the fire at home; You can't eat fish during the sacrifice. Among them, sneezing in sacrifice is especially taboo. The southern Gaoshan people believe that sneezing means that the soul is out of its shell, which is in danger of attracting ghosts and is a sign of disaster.
The main taboos in fertility are:
1, it is forbidden to have twins, because it is superstitious that twins are where wild animals are, which indicates that disaster is coming and one of them will be killed.
Bunun people are jealous of illegitimate children and usually abandon illegitimate children in the wild.
3, Ah Mui production taboo men and widows peep, baby taboo father's arms, it is said that because the baby is weak, through contact will make his father infected with weak diseases, so that when hunting and going out, he is weak and gets nothing. This peculiar taboo is a "measure" of privileged matriarchal society to ensure that the custody of children is in the hands of mothers. Stratum spinosum
Also known as golf, it is one of the favorite sports forms of Gaoshan people. Popular in Pingtung, Taiwan Province and Chaozhou, Guangdong, it is held once every five years, so it is also called "Five-Year Festival", which is very grand. This entry comes from an ancient folklore: a long time ago, a brave young man of Gaoshan nationality was guarding the fire of mankind, and suddenly he found a tiger trying to put out the fire. He stabbed the tiger to death with a long pole, so that the human fire could be preserved. Later, in order to commemorate his heroic behavior and inspire the fighting spirit of the nation, people widely carried out this sport among the people.
According to the folk custom, the ball used to stab the ball is made of zongzi skin, and the holder of the stick will have all the best in the next five years. The more you poke, the more you will be respected by the villagers, and you may also get the favor of the girls. Stabbing activities are mostly held in the countryside, with more than a dozen people and dozens of participants. During the competition, the zongzi ball is thrown into the air by a special thrower, and the pole holder dances the spear with both hands, so that the zongzi ball falling into the spear wins. There is no limit to the number of throws, and I hope everyone can get good luck. Before the end, the bowler usually throws a ball full of feathers into the air. As long as someone hits, it's over.
basketball
Also known as the Basketball Association, it is a form of love between young men and women of Gaoshan nationality. Popular in Taitung and Hualien, they are called "A-mei". Participants should be unmarried young men and women.
In the activity, young women run in front with baskets on their backs, and young men follow closely behind, usually at intervals of about 4-5. They keep throwing betel nuts, which symbolize evergreen, longevity, auspiciousness and happiness, into young women's baskets. If the thrower looks like a girl, he will be happy and hesitate. On the other hand, the young woman poured betel nuts out of the basket on her shoulder and continued to run. This kind of activity also exists in schools of Gaoshan nationality in Taiwan Province Province, but it plays down the significance of love between men and women and becomes a purely recreational folk sports activity. As a competition, it is generally divided into two teams. One person in each team carries the basket specially, and the rest of the players throw it into each other. The basket picker tried to avoid the betel nut thrown by the thrower, and finally won by throwing more.
play on the swing
It is another recreational activity that young men and women of Gaoshan nationality actively participate in. When swinging, the girl sat on the rattan mat of the swing and tied a long rope for the boy to pull and manipulate, and the hatchback cooperated.