The Cultural Component and Practicing of Indigenous Community Care along the Daan River

• Main Authors: Chao-Kai Huang, 黃炤愷
• Other Authors: 陳怡伃
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/3938pn

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 社會工作學研究所 === 106 === Care work is an urgent issue in the indigenous community in modern Taiwan with the decreasing birth rate, young people moving out and aging society. Culture care is the ideal care in transcultural settings in the literature review, which emphasis on providing care by respecting the culture of the care receivers. The implementation of culture care scatters and calls for an overarching model. This ethnographic study which aims to explore the meaning of the culture in care work and to find a pattern of practicing in the Atayal communities along the Daan River, Taichung, Taiwan. Four months of fieldwork were carried out between March and July in 2017. Participant observation, informal interviews, and in-depth interviews took place in Taiwan Indigenous Dmavun Development Association (TIDDA), a local social welfare organization, and three churches. The findings of this study indicate that both the integrated belief and the economic behaviors are the fundamental structure of culture care in the indigenous community. First, there is a system of spiritual belief in the life. It is a mix of the ethnic tradition, gaga and utux, and the Christian religion, which can be observed at the churches, TIDDA and in individuals’ practicing. This integrated belief supports the health of body-mind-spirit and also social aspects for the Atayal. Secondly, farming work stands as the economic behavior that integrates the local moral world and people’s aspiration of returning to land. The local moral world emphasizes common good, a logic of sharing but competition, reaching consensus and memorizing social suffering of Atayal in this area. Such a worldview sustains the concrete services, caring relationships, and other forms of exchange among the Atayal. Farming is chosen as a way to empower the elder Atayal since farming was used to be their daily work. Thus, the elder Atayal become the caregiver who produces food instead care the receiver who waits for help. According to the findings, this study suggests that the government should rethink how resource goes into the indigenous community. It is culturally appropriated to create a flexible policy that respects the local moral world in which spiritual systems, economic life, and informal relationships support one another.