Anthropology Note 26 - Orchid Island Pigs gu'is (Borrowed Hokkien Word kuí-á 鬼神)







(This is NOTE 26 of the main ongoing Anthropology Notes HERE.)

According to 'Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan' in THIS article -  
Tao people 達悟族人 (an Austronesian ethnic group native to the tiny outlying Orchid Island of Taiwan) called their Native Lanyu pigs 蘭嶼豬 'gu'is'.

'Gu'is' - borrowed from a Hokkien word  kuí-á ( kuí) 鬼神 meaning supernatural/spirits/ghosts and gods - explains Tao are in awe of Lanyu pig's supernatural power and fearsome fixed stare.


Pigs (Wild boars) thick bristles is called 剛鬣 gāng liè (Source - Three Consecrations 三獻 rites, Book of Rites (Liji 禮記) @476 BC) - see our TOPICS article Feeding the Departed.


August 29 2023 

Back in 1897, two years after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, anthropologist Ryuzo Torii became the first Japanese person to land on Lanyu (called Koto-sho at the time). He heard the local tribesmen using the word "yami" to address each other in their native tongue; this is the source of the tribe name Yami.
After a survey around the island lasting over two weeks, Torii and the Japanese soldiers who accompanied him noted down records about the Yami (also known as the Tao): "Socioeconomically, they live a primitive communal lifestyle based on barter, raising goats and chickens, and small wild pigs. Their crops include sweet potatoes, millet grown in dry fields, and taro and fruit grown in wet fields, with fish as their main staple." This was the first time the Lanyu miniature pig was described in writing.
But the Lanyu miniature pig enjoyed high status in Yami oral tradition for a much longer time. According to an oft-recited tale, a child once saw a small black animal on a path, suckling from its mother and crying out "ee-kikik." The child, puzzled, asked his grandfather what it was. "Go catch one, bring it back, and show it to me," said the grandfather. "Ah!" he said when he saw the child holding the little creature, "That is a kois.'' This is the origin of the Tao word for "pig."

Sam Ju　/　photos Chuang Kung-ju　/　tr. by Chris Nelson

August 2009








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