The former lived in mountainous areas, and the latter lived mainly on the plains. In the 19th century, anthropologist Ino Yoshinori came to Taiwan to do research. He discovered that Taiwan's indigenous people actually included many different tribes with distinct cultures. He classified the Pingpu aborigines more precisely into ten divisions.
然而，十九世紀末，人類學者伊能嘉矩到台灣考察時，卻發現台灣原住民其實包含許多文化各異的族群，於是才根據語言的不同將「平埔族」再細分為「十部（族）」，其中「凱達格蘭族」指的就是居住在北台灣的平埔族。