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Hong, H. Cultural Transmission of the Bunun People in Taiwan. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/59360 (accessed on 16 December 2025).
Hong H. Cultural Transmission of the Bunun People in Taiwan. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/59360. Accessed December 16, 2025.
Hong, Hong. "Cultural Transmission of the Bunun People in Taiwan" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/59360 (accessed December 16, 2025).
Hong, H. (2025, December 16). Cultural Transmission of the Bunun People in Taiwan. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/59360
Hong, Hong. "Cultural Transmission of the Bunun People in Taiwan." Encyclopedia. Web. 16 December, 2025.
Peer Reviewed
Cultural Transmission of the Bunun People in Taiwan
This is a peer-reviewed entry published in Encyclopedia Journal, full entry can be found at 10.3390/encyclopedia5040209

The Bunun are one of the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan, traditionally known for their mountain agriculture and communal cooperation. The cultural transmission of the Bunun people refers to the intergenerational process through which knowledge, values, and beliefs are passed down via language, rituals, music, hunting ethics, and daily practices. This system not only sustains ethnic identity but also demonstrates cultural resilience. However, historical colonization, forced relocation, assimilation in education, and modernization have disrupted these pathways. In recent years, elders, cultural health stations, community universities, and schools have collaboratively promoted cultural revitalization through curriculum design, ritual restoration, and language teaching.

Bunun people cultural transmission indigenous knowledge intergenerational learning cultural revitalization Taiwan
Bunun cultural transmission refers to the intergenerational transfer of ecological knowledge, ritual practice, governance norms, and communal ethics within one of Taiwan’s major Indigenous societies. Located primarily across the Central Mountain Range, the Bunun sustain cultural continuity through land-based practices such as polyphonic singing, millet agriculture, hunting ethics, and ritual calendars. These practices connect moral obligations, environmental stewardship, and social cooperation, making cultural knowledge inseparable from ecological engagement.
Cultural transmission plays a crucial role in sustaining the identity, resilience, and continuity of Indigenous communities worldwide. It involves the intergenerational transfer of language, knowledge, beliefs, and cultural practices, enabling communities to maintain their distinct worldviews and adapt to changing social environments.
Globally, many Indigenous communities face critical challenges to sustaining cultural transmission due to colonization, urbanization, and language loss. For example, in Australia, the rapid decline of Aboriginal languages—many of which are now critically endangered—has been identified by UNESCO as part of a global language loss crisis. In Canada, First Nations communities have developed digital archiving and community-based education programs to counteract the effects of forced assimilation. Similarly, the Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand have successfully advanced language revitalization through immersion schools (kura kaupapa Māori) and community broadcasting, providing powerful models for cultural resilience in postcolonial contexts. These cases reveal both the fragility and strength of Indigenous cultural systems worldwide [1][2][3]. Rather than suggesting equivalence across these Indigenous cases, the purpose of this comparison is to highlight how the Bunun uniquely integrate ecological knowledge and polyphonic vocal practices into cultural transmission, challenging language-centered assumptions that view revitalization primarily as a linguistic endeavor.
For the Bunun people, one of Taiwan’s Austronesian-speaking Indigenous groups, cultural transmission has historically taken place through oral traditions, communal agriculture, ritual practices, and collective governance systems. These practices not only reflect a close relationship with the natural environment but also embody core cultural values such as reciprocity, respect for ancestral wisdom, and communal responsibility.
Unlike many Indigenous communities in lowland or urban settings, the Bunun people have historically inhabited mountain regions, where their cultural transmission has been closely intertwined with ecological knowledge and the ritual singing tradition known as pasibutbut—a form of multipart chanting performed during millet rituals. Pasibutbut has been officially recognized by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture as an important traditional performing art for its sophisticated overtone structure and its ceremonial role in expressing communal prayer. This ecological and artistic interconnection gives the Bunun case special significance in global Indigenous studies [4][5].
For over a century (since 1895), however, colonization, forced relocation, language assimilation, and modernization have disrupted these traditional pathways. For example, Japanese and later Nationalist government policies often relocated mountain Indigenous groups, severing them from ancestral lands and undermining subsistence practices [6]. Taiwan’s more recent Indigenous language and cultural revitalization policies—such as the Indigenous Languages Development Act passed in 2017—represent steps toward reversing language loss and restoring cultural transmission channels [7]. In response, Bunun communities and allied institutions have initiated efforts in ritual restoration, language curriculum development, and collaborative community education to renew their intergenerational linkages.
This focus on language and cultural revitalization aligns with global efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritage and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 4 (Quality Education) and Goal 11 (Sustainable Communities). According to Moseley [8], as General Editor of the third edition of the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, the atlas has become a key tool for tracking threats to vulnerable languages worldwide, reminding us that many of the world’s languages are at serious risk of disappearance. This underscores the urgent need to support Indigenous communities in preserving and transmitting their linguistic and cultural heritage.
This entry offers a comprehensive overview of the concept, historical trajectory, and contemporary practices of cultural transmission among the Bunun people, highlighting challenges and possible pathways forward in sustaining Indigenous cultural continuity in Taiwan [9].
As a member of the Bunun Indigenous community in Taiwan, I have been actively engaged in cultural revitalization work since 2016. Over the past years, my involvement has included publishing picture books and monographs, organizing cultural exhibitions, designing and teaching community-based courses, hosting storytelling activities and art competitions, and developing educational tools such as board games. These initiatives have been rooted in the goal of sustaining intergenerational cultural transmission through creative, educational, and community-centered approaches. This long-term engagement not only shaped my research motivation but also provided a deep understanding of the cultural contexts, values, and aspirations of the Bunun people. It also positioned me as both a researcher and a cultural practitioner, bridging academic inquiry with lived community experience.
Since 2016, I have engaged in long-term participatory observation and collaboration with Bunun communities in Taiwan. My positionality as both a cultural practitioner and researcher shaped how I collected and interpreted data, emphasizing community meanings, relational knowledge, and lived cultural experiences.
This study is grounded in sustained participatory engagement, combining community-based cultural practice, field observation, and documentation of cultural revitalization activities. Data were generated through multiple strategies: (1) participant observation during rituals, festivals, language classes, and exhibitions; (2) semi-structured conversations and oral history interviews with elders, artisans, and youth leaders; (3) document review of local archives, community records, and policy documents; and (4) reflective journaling throughout the research process.
This blended approach reflects the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), which emphasize reciprocal relationships and shared ownership of knowledge [10][11]. The interpretation of cultural practices was informed by Indigenous methodological perspectives, recognizing knowledge as relational, embodied, and situated within community contexts [12][13]. Reflexivity was central to this process: my dual role required continuous negotiation between insider and outsider positions, ensuring that community meanings and protocols were respected while maintaining scholarly rigor. This methodological stance aligns with decolonizing research paradigms that center Indigenous epistemologies and agency [14].

References

  1. UNESCO. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2010. Available online: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000187026 (accessed on 15 September 2025).
  2. First Peoples’ Cultural Council. Indigenous Language Revitalization and Technology Report. British Columbia, Canada. 2020. Available online: https://fpcc.ca/stories/endangered-languages-project/ (accessed on 10 September 2025).
  3. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. Māori Language Revitalisation Strategy. Aotearoa New Zealand. 2023. Available online: https://en.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/mauriora (accessed on 10 September 2025).
  4. Nantou County Cultural Affairs Bureau. Bunun Eight-Part Polyphonic Singing (Pasibutbut Millet Harvest Prayer Song). 2017. Available online: https://nchdb.boch.gov.tw/assets/overview/traditionalPerformingart/20090423000005 (accessed on 10 September 2025).
  5. Hualien County Cultural Affairs Bureau. Bunun Music: Pasibutbut (Millet Harvest Prayer Song). 2019. Available online: https://www.hccc.gov.tw/zh-tw/CulturalHeritage/Detail/203 (accessed on 10 September 2025).
  6. Cheng, C.J. Root Seeking and Remote Sensing with the Bunun in the Mountains of Taiwan. Adv. Archaeol. Pract. 2023, 11, 289–301.
  7. Hou, Y.-H.; Kabala’an, N.; Lin, H. Indigenous Language Education in Taiwan: From Language Preservation to Community-Based Learning. Taiwan Insight. 2024. Available online: https://taiwaninsight.org/2024/03/25/indigenous-language-education-in-taiwan-from-language-preservation-to-community-based-learning/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (accessed on 21 August 2025).
  8. Moseley, C. The UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger: Context and Process (World Oral Literature Project Occasional Paper No. 5). University of Cambridge. 2010. Available online: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/243434 (accessed on 21 August 2025).
  9. Yang, S.Y. Cultural Performance and the Reconstruction of Tradition among the Bunun of Taiwan. Taiwan J. Anthropol. 2011, 9, 55–98. Available online: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23209538 (accessed on 21 August 2025).
  10. UNESCO. Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2003. Available online: https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention (accessed on 25 August 2025).
  11. Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.; Feldman, M.W. Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach; Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, USA, 1981.
  12. Boyd, R.; Richerson, P.J. Culture and the Evolutionary Process; University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, USA, 1985.
  13. Richerson, P.J.; Boyd, R. Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution; University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, USA, 2005.
  14. Yen, K.-C. Historical Events Involving the Bunun People Under Japanese Colonial Rule (1895–1945). Master’s Thesis, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2003. Available online: https://ah.lib.nccu.edu.tw/item?item_id=35820 (accessed on 21 August 2025).
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