The word "aborigine" is merely a generalization and, as National Taiwan University anthropology lecturer Hu Chia-yu points out, Taiwan's indigenous peoples actually belong to more than a dozen ethnic groups. These have distinct social organizations, marriage systems, religious beliefs and utensils.
台灣大學人類學系講師胡家瑜表示，「原住民」一詞也只是統稱，其實台灣原住民共分十幾個族群，而各族間的社會組織、婚姻制度、宗教信仰、器物特色都有很大的不同。