Gender, Body and Cultivating Style: A Case Study of Women''s Cultivation in Lu-Liao, Yunlin from Rural Landscape Perspective

• Main Authors: Chi-Chen Yen, 顏祁貞
• Other Authors: I-chun Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/80320420815457413288

碩士 === 雲林科技大學 === 文化資產維護系碩士班 === 96 === This dissertation takes Lu-liao settlement of Yunlin County as the main fieldsite in order to understand the trend of women’s cultivation in the rural Taiwan. Through the perspectives of landscape, Feminist geography, and body studies, it analyzes how women transform their secondary status to the irreplaceable position. In addition, it explores how women manage their family and interpersonal network to establish their independence and self-value. The cultivating knowledge which the Lu-liao woman constructed is twofold: the one is established from their body experience; the other is the changing value system in the rural area. (A) the establishment of body experience: through their own working habits, experiences and corporeality, women create their own cultivating styles, which contribute to the local characteristics of Lu-liao. This research also finds out that, apart from working ability and personal network, women have made themselves irreplaceable in the gender division of cultivation work. (B) the changing value system in the rural area: from Wolf’s concepts of "uterine family" and "women''s community", this research tries to locate the position and value of women in the rural community. In addition to everyday labor, it also attempts to understand their spiritual life. In so doing, we can realize the social life and normative value system which have long dominated women. The research discovers that women have made efforts to understand the value of their existence. They establish their own importance from working in the field. Hopefully, this research can provide an overall situation of women’s cultivation in Lu-liao which urge the authorities to face up to the problems of woman labor in agriculture and bring up suitable solutions.