Development and contemporary concepts of Taiwanese Indigenous music and dance

Abstract

In ancient times, the ritual music and dances of Taiwanese Indigenous peoples expressed desire and reverence for the universe and the gods. During seasonal rituals, tribes often performed rituals, ceremonies, songs, and dances with heaven and earth as their stage and the night as their setting. Rituals, ceremonies, music, and dance are a cultural embodiment of tribal ethics and ethnic history characterized by honour and awe of the gods and entertainment for the performers and the spectators. Indigenous rituals, ceremonies, music, and dance embody the memories of ancestors and the ruminations and passing on of the cultural matrix. They also represent a social field for the moral life and care of tribes. Despite the fact that early aborigines had no written language, the cultural embodiment and personal practice of rituals, ceremonies, music, and dance represent a fundamental carrier of tribal ethics and collective memory.