The Cultural Construction of Space and Migration in Paiwan, Taiwan

Abstract

The establishment and use of space is a culturally constructed dimension of the human experience that is figurative, metaphorical, and analogical in nature. Such phenomena are mapped and encoded in people's spatial and cultural cognition and they are constituted and reconstituted during moments of migration onto new lands. In this paper it is argued that analysing the spatial dimensions that are enacted by a social group during its migration offers scholars a means to ascertain the metaphorical meaning of the lives of its members. Examining such processes also enables archaeologists to identify and interpret the nature of cultural continuity during such movements. The paper presents the results of examining the nature of cultural continuity in the configurations and patterns of ancient house structures and settlements that were established and then abandoned by the Kaushi, a Paiwan group in southern Taiwan, as they migrated and colonized and created a new cultural landscape.