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Paper short abstract

This paper examines Tao traditional songs as an ontologically unique form of language. Drawing on ethnography , it shows how songs are intertwined with social interaction, memory and Indigenous knowledge, becoming normatively binding elements of tribal relations and social structure.

Paper long abstract

In today’s polarized world, many of the native languages of primary tribal societies are experiencing widespread rupture. In contrast, Tao people – the only indigenous maritime tribe in Taiwan – have long maintained an oral, linguistic form of traditional songs. These songs resemble poetic chanting, serve as an interactive mode of communication, record layered memories of individual and collective experiences, and occupy a central position in both ritual and everyday practice.

Based on ethnographic fieldworks, a grounded theory methodology is employed to finding out the underlying ontological practices of the meanings of the collected linguistic texts of 306 Tao songs. Taking Tao songs as subjects of study, this research conceptualizes them as a communicative medium for social formation and examines their social functions through the processes of linguistic transformation, involving individual expression, interpersonal singing, as well as interactive talks and collective performance.

This research engages current debates concerning the ontology of language and communication, collective memories and oral experiences, and the transforming capabilities of aboriginal songs as a unique form as language. Rather than treating the aboriginal song merely as a singular symbolic text, this research emphasizes the socially constructed role of songs in everyday life world. It concludes that Tao aboriginal songs serve as a particular form of language. They are created in social life, embedded in social memory and indigenous knowledge, mediated though interpersonal communication, and become normatively binding elements of tribal relationships and social structure.