From Takow to Kaohsiung

On Tribe and Ethnic Group

Languages change over time, words that meant one thing decades or centuries ago can evolve, not just in spelling and pronunciation, but also in meaning. Sometimes, like "silly" (which originally meant "happy") or "nice" (which meant "silly", as in "not knowing"), they end up meaning something completely different.

During the period in which words are undergoing such changes, people can become indignant or even irate about other people's errors or stupidity, such as at the present time with words such as "literally" or "ironic" or "coincidental". Maybe these words will also end up with new meanings.

On other occasions, this kind of variation in word usage just causes confusion until things settle down. One word that is perhaps also undergoing evolution in our own times and which is of relevance to this blog is "tribe". Within anthropology, this may be defined as "a society larger than a band but smaller than a state" (see Wiktionary), though even that isn't particularly specific. Elsewhere, it is used to refer to whole "ethnic groups or races of people".

Within the context of Taiwan's indigenous peoples--who self-identify as "Aborigines" (原住民; Mdn. Yuanzhumin)--"tribe" is generally used to translate 部落 (Mdn. buluo), that is, a village, while "ethnic group" is used to translate 族 (Mdn. zu), generally subdivided on the basis of language and other cultural traits.

This blog accords with these usages.



Copyright Jiyue Publications 2022