Abstract
The Yami, living on the small volcanic island of Botel Tobago, some 45 nautical miles off the southeastern shore of Taiwan, is a small ethnic group of the Formosan Aborigines with a population of 1650 settled in six fishing villages. In contrast with the aborigines of Taiwan proper who have been more or less accultured under the Chinese administration, the Yami still retain their original culture almost intact by the modern civilization.The subsistent economy of the Yami consists of fishing and horticulture. The former is rather more important than the latter in both economic and socio-religious aspects, because cultivable lands are scarce on the island and the tropical storm frequently destroys the crops. Socially, though the Yami emphasize the relation of bilateral group, the descent is patrilineal and resi-dence patrilocal. A patrilineal family is the basic unit for economic and socialization functions. Different from their close relatives on Formosa and in the Philippines who had been hunters until recent years, the Yami are people "peaceful and firendly", not only to the outsiders but also among their own community. Co-operation is essential to their economic and socio-religious activities; non-aggressiveness is the basic value in the society; and the several kinds of weapons they have are mostly for ritual usage. In addition, the Yami are also free from alcohol and nicotine.In general, the Yami religion asserts the common feature of the Southeast Asiatic animistic religion. As among many other Formosan Aborigines, the Yami believe that there are two sorts of supernatural beings: benevolent spirits and evil ones. The former, including gods and ancestors, are builders of the universe and guardians of the human being. The latter, being souls of the malevolent dead and other animistic spirits are always malicious to the living. The Yami people emphasize the significant role of the evil ghosts or anito in their daily life so much that they almost neglect the existence of the benevolent gods. It is anito that are the most feared and hated subjects in the Yami society by persons of all ages and both sexes. Their fear and hatred can be evidenced by their overt behaviors, linguistics, and also unconscious con-dition, and consequently it is not only in the ceremonial life but also in daily social activities that the Yami always express such feelings toward anito. It is their belief that burial places are the most common habitats of anito. A single plant or a pinch of soil brought home from a burial place may stir up a whole family and cause the household to pick up their spears to exorcise the ghosts (Plate Ⅰ shows that the Yami men armed with armour, helmet and spear are exorcising the anito). In the ceremony of launching a new fishing boat, the participants surround it with threatening gestures and shout with a loud voice in order to drive off the anito which, it is believed, might have attached to the boat. The mood and temper displayed by these participants may well illustrate the feeling of fear and hatred of the Yami people toward the anito (See Plate Ⅱ). In the festival in celebration of the completion of a new building, the Yami used to have some sorts of magical devices to guard the yam they offered from being disturbed or stolen by the anito. In the event one died unnaturally, the victim's relatives, running around the corpse, will chant to execrate the anito causing the death as follows:I can see you in there, and I'll stab you with my spear,get out of here,you devil! get out of this place, you took this man from us, you accursed devil!moreover, the Yami believe that it is also the anito who cause all the ill-nesses, and thus are also ultimately responsible for all misfortunes and calam-ities of human beings, either directly or indirectly. Therefore, they are feared and hated by the Yami and will be stabbed and driven off at any occasion. In analysis of the Yami's belief in the anito, we can see that the anito obviously provides a "reasonable" explanation for all the illnesses, misfortunes and calamities that can not be controlled technically by the tribe. A further ivestigation into the social functions of the anito reveals that Melford Spiro's argument on Ifaluk alus seems to have its parallel in the Yami society (Spiro, 1952). As we have mentioned above, nonaggressiveness is the basic social value of the Yami people; there are absolutely no possibility for such aggres-sive behovior as head-hunting in the society; and weapons are merely used for ritual purposes. Under such a social environment, all aggressive beha-viors are restrained, thus only through co-operation and mutual help can they be afforded the opportunity for the existence and continuity of their society. However, according to Yen and Lin, two psychologists, there exist "strong anxiety" and "outburst emotion" among the Yami mental activities (Yen & Lin, 1955),and these emotions and drive demand expression or displacing. Under such a condition where the people can neither display overt aggressive behaviors nor can they "withdraw" from the situation by way of drinking, the anito seems to be a possible outlet to express the drive, the only culturally sanctioned way to canalize anti-social aggressive drives.