原鄉茶事：梨山高山茶產業的原住民性

Abstract

隨著另類食物生產和消費的發展，現金作物和原住民之間的關係存在著爭議。過去的研究認為，外來的現金作物的種植，可能對部落的社會文化產生負面影響。然而，在外來經濟作物引入的同時，是否也提供原住民發展的契機。 在本研究中，我以高山茶這項原本不屬於原住民的傳統作物為媒介，討論原住民在高山茶產業的實踐，並分析其如何藉由產茶與賣茶的過程凸顯原住民性。藉由政治生態學對原住民性的討論，打破當前社會對原住民浪漫化的想像，以貼近接合在不同情境中動態的原住民性。 在方法論上，我以梨山新佳陽部落為主要的田野點，以半結構式訪談和參與觀察法，考察原住民在高山茶產業的日常生活實踐，並追蹤茶葉從產地到市場的生產過程，探究特定情境中原住民性的意涵。 高山農業脈絡下的原鄉茶產業發展，涉及來自平地茶農、茶商、製茶師和國內外的投資者。在茶葉產銷面上，原住民嘗試以生產論述、包裝和服裝，在不同場合中回應主流對原住民的想像，在跨尺度的空間中不斷地自我定位。 我論證原住民性並不是單純來自族群的差異，而是在市場經濟的過程中，透過茶葉這項經濟作物，形塑出族群的邊界外，跨尺度浮現的原住民性，存在著有別於國家想像的落差。在社會文化面，深化身分認同的同時，個人階級的翻轉也改變部落的社會關係。 原住民性的浮現看似深化了原漢之間的族群邊界，但在多重且複雜的關係中，各自存在著偶發的變動與矛盾。為了補足接合理論，我借用跨地方裝配的概念，說明雖然茶與原住民在不同尺度中，原住民性存在著模糊地帶，卻也因為異質元素的結合，使跨界發展成為可能。最後，本研究藉由原住民性的討論，重新檢視原漢二元對立的思維，以及對原住民政治正確的論述。

Relationship between cash crop plantation and indigenous people is contested within recent development of alternative food production and consumption. Many studies have suggested that when indigenous people planted foreign commodity crops, it caused social and cultural impacts on the tribe. However, some studies also show that the new cultivation of the foreign economic crops also provided new opportunities for the development of the indigenous people. In this study, I used tea, which is seldom seen as part of the indigenous people’s traditional culture, to discuss the dynamics among tea, mountain agriculture, and an indigenous group called Atayal in Lishan, Taiwan. I aim to identify how the indigenous people re-position themselves in the changing tea market and tea production by studying their multiple and complex relationship among different groups of tea farmers, tea merchants, tea makers, and domestic and foreign investors. Drawing primarily upon semi-structured interviews and participant observations with the indigenous tea farmers, domestic and foreign investors, and consumers, this research enquires into the connection between nature and indigeneity of tea industry. Tea is usually considered as one of the cultural symbols of Han Chinese, and a representative agricultural product in Taiwan. With the development of mountain agriculture, the high mountain tea industry gradually replaced the fruit industry, and became one of the main economic activities of the indigenous people in Taiwan. My analytic approach is based on political ecologist understanding of indigeneity with the concept of articulation. Through my analysis, the indigenous people have been in struggles over their relationship with the market, the state, recent environmental governance, and their own cultural identity. Therefore, the changing meanings of indigeneity have been embodied and articulated through the dynamic processes of tea industry. I argue that indigeneity is not simply a matter of ethnicity, but rather a process of the market economy. In addition, indigeneity that emerged across different scales are different from the national imagination. In the social and cultural aspects, the articulation of indigeneity also deepen the identity, while changing the class and social relations in the tribal. By viewing tea on the economic crop, the boundaries of ethnic groups are formed by the market. The emergence of indigeneity seems to reinforce the ethnic boundaries between the indigenous people and the Han people. Nevertheless, the emergence of indigeneity has been in fact simultaneously existed with contradictories. It shows a process of translocal assemblage, and illustrates the limitations of articulation. Although the ambiguities of indigeneity exist between tea and Indigenous peoples at different scales, cross-border working and the combination of heterogeneous elements make it possible to develop tea industry. For those indigenous people who practice mountain agriculture for their livelihoods in my study, the process of value creation of the market economy, paradoxically, has also strengthened the indigenous people’s recognition of land in the tea marketing. Through the discussion of indigeneity, this research argues that the binary opposition between the indigenous people and Han people, as well as the political correctness of an essentialized indigenous culture should be re-examined.