臺灣原住民族創生神話研究：以魯凱族、排灣族日治文獻為核心

Abstract

日本統治臺灣時，第一次大規模、有系統地記錄下了原住民族的神話。透過殖民政府調査所得的文獻，不但奠定了分類臺灣原住民族的基礎，也首次將其口頭傳統轉化為書寫文本。這些歷史文獻雖帶有帝國的殖民治理與文化改造的目的，對理解原住民族的文化傳統與世界觀卻具有無可取代的價值。魯凱族與排灣族神話中，性別分工被賦予神聖意義。女性主導農耕、炊事與手工藝，男性則從事木工、狩獵、集會與宗教儀式，並依地理與部落實況展現彈性。而社會制度則顯現出由雙系向男性優勢轉變的趨勢。這些神話結構亦展現出清晰的秩序與分類邏輯，符合李維史陀所謂的「野性思維」。如陶壺、太陽與蛇等圖騰，象徵祖先起源與貴族階級，構成一套圖騰分類與社會轉換的象徵體系。婚姻制度亦在神話中具備中介與調和的功能，維繫階級、族群與社會穩定。在心理層面，魯凱族與排灣族的創生神話符合榮格的「集體無意識」理論與埃利希・諾伊曼提出的「大母神原型」。大母神象徵不僅為生命起源，也代表死亡與再生的雙重意義。陶器與卵象徵「大容器」與「大圓」，如排灣族母壺上的乳房圖樣即強化女性滋養意象，反映母性原型在神話中作為文化與生命之源。魯凱族與排灣族的創生神話不僅是族群記憶的文化資產，更展現人類共同的心理結構與文化經驗，與世界其他地區的神話在形式與意涵上呈現高度的共通性。榮格的「集體無意識」和李維史陀的「野性思維」解釋了這些文化現象的普遍性，使我們跨文化對照看見各個民族的文化經驗。During Japan’s colonial rule of Taiwan, the myths of the island’s Indigenous peoples were recorded for the first time on a large and systematic scale. Through documents produced by the colonial government's surveys, not only was a foundational system for classifying Taiwan’s Indigenous groups established, but their oral traditions were also transformed into written texts for the first time. Although these historical records were created with imperial aims of colonial governance and cultural assimilation, they nevertheless hold irreplaceable value for understanding the cultural traditions and worldviews of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples. In these myths, the gender division of labor is imbued with sacred significance. Women are primarily responsible for farming, cooking, and handicrafts, while men take charge of woodworking, hunting, communal gatherings, and ritual activities. Though flexible across regions and communities, this division of labor reflects a general social tendency toward a transition from bilateral kinship to male-dominant structures.Structurally, these myths demonstrate a clear logic of order and classification, aligning with Claude Lévi-Strauss’s concept of la pensée sauvage (“the savage mind”). Symbols such as pottery jars, the sun, and serpents are not only linked to ancestral origins but also sanctify aristocratic lineages. These form a symbolic system that governs totemic classification, social transformation, and ritual taboos. Moreover, marriage in myth serves as a mediating and harmonizing force, functioning as a mechanism for class stability and social integration.On the psychological level, the creation myths of the Rukai and Paiwan resonate with Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and can be further interpreted through Erich Neumann’s concept of the Great Mother archetype. Neumann argues that the Great Mother embodies a dual symbolism of creation and destruction, often represented through container-like imagery—such as jars, eggs, serpents, and circular motifs. In Rukai and Paiwan mythology, the pottery jar symbolizes a generative container, while the breast motifs on Paiwan ritual jars reinforce the nurturing aspect of the maternal archetype, portraying the Great Mother as a foundational symbol of life and cultural order.In sum, the ancestral myths of the Rukai and Paiwan are not only repositories of collective memory but also reflect shared psychological structures and cultural experiences across humanity. Their mythic forms and symbolic logic closely align with creation myths from other parts of the world. Jung’s collective unconscious and Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist thought offer valuable theoretical lenses for understanding the universality of these cultural expressions, enabling a cross-cultural perspective on how myth shapes each society’s worldview.