Emissaries of the Ancestors
The Truku of Taiwan, once known for the arts of warfare and for head-hunting in the mountainous forests of the island, possess rich knowledge of the wild fauna and flora found there. Hunters and horticulturalists observe bird behaviour for pleasure, to protect their crops, and for divinatory signs. The sisil bird (Grey-cheeked Fulvetta, Alcippe morrisonia), which has become the national symbol of both the Sadyaq (Seediq/Sediq/Sejiq) and Truku tribes, predicts success or failure in the hunt. The owl announces the sex of unborn children. Another mysterious bird augurs death. Systems of bird divination, according to Lévi-Strauss, seem arbitrary, but become coherent within the larger context of cosmology. This article explores the avian cosmology of the Truku within its historical complexity and across the social change of contemporary life. Natural ontologies are not merely reflections of cosmology or culture, but also change with the broader political ecology as people engage with non-human animals in new ways.