The optimal experience of "pasibutbut" : Investigating the consciousness state of Bunun Taiwanese when singing the Millet Harvest Praying Song

• Main Authors: Lang Wei,Ma La Ssu La San, 朗蔚‧瑪拉斯拉散
• Other Authors: 王育雯
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4a8h33

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 音樂學研究所 === 105 === The Bunun tribe in Taiwan sing a ritual song Pasibutbut to pray for abundant millet harvest in the coming year. To represent the Bunun tribe in singing Pasibutbut, an individual must undergo a rigorous selection process. Those selected strive to complete the mission in earnest. According to previous studies, the experience of achieving a personal goal is referred to as “rounding off,” or maslin or bisosilin in the Bunun language. In the case of Pasibutbut, although the mission is explicitly expressed in the form of harmonious singing, its essence is a state or experience of seeking satsifaction from the divine.The nature of the “rounding off” experience of Pasibutbut is worthy of investigation.This study explored the state of consciousness involved in the “rounding off” experience of Pasibutbut. The most direct method of investigating the state of consciousness involved in “rounding off” is to collect Bunun people’s experiences of singing Pasibutbut. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect subjective experiences from Bunun people, the collection of which requires a large amount of verbal communication. This data collection was implemented in two stages, namely a first stage of exploratory interviews and second stage of formal interviews. In the first stage, 14 people were interviewed and data were collected through one-on-one interviews and a group discussion. From the data, the researcher summarized the preliminary key characteristics of the “rounding off” experience and prepared a structural outline for the second interview stage. In the second stage, formal interviews were conducted with ten interviewees and data were collected through open interviews, structured interviews, and a supplementary questionnaire survey. Data from the two stages, in which 24 Pasibutbut singers were interviewed, were pooled. After analyzing the pooled data, the researcher summarized the preliminary characteristics of the consciousness in the “rounding off” experience. Based on this preliminary study, it is discovered that the consciousness of “rounding off” contains four characteristics: a sense of oneness, sense of mastering skills, sense of focus, and sense of positive pleasantness. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the consciousness of “rounding off,” these four characteristics were compared with the more extensively-studied flow experience in this thesis. This study found that the four characteristics are similar to those of the flow experience but not identical, including the experience of spiritual oneness and the hearing experience involved. This study makes three major contributions. First, it provides information on the consciousness in Pasibutbut singing. Second, it presents the psychological value of singing Pasibutbut in addition to the song’s musicological value. Third, it provides a dialogue between Bunun ethnic culture and universal science.