Lifestyle
The Atayal Tribe is a fairly advanced culture. They originally lived by fishing, hunting, gathering, and growing crops on burned-off mountain fields. The tribe also practices crafts such as weaving, net knotting, and woodworking. They also have traditional musical instruments and dances.
The Atayal are known as great warriors. To earn his facial tattoo, a man had to bring back at least one human head; these heads, or skulls, were highly honored, given food and drink, and expected to bring good harvests to the fields. (See Headhunting) They were known to be fierce fighters as observed in the case of the Wushe Incident in which the Atayal fought the Japanese. A girl would learn to weave when she was about ten or twelve. She had to master the skill to earn her tattoo. Only those with tattoos could marry, and after death, only those with tattoos could cross the utux hongu, or spirit bridge (the rainbow) to the hereafter.The facial tattoo, in Squliq Tayal, is 'ptasan.'
Read more about this topic: Atayal People
Famous quotes containing the word lifestyle:
“The hippie is the scion of surplus value. The dropout can only claim sanctity in a society which offers something to be dropped out of—career, ambition, conspicuous consumption. The effects of hippie sanctimony can only be felt in the context of others who plunder his lifestyle for what they find good or profitable, a process known as rip-off by the hippie, who will not see how savagely he has pillaged intricate and demanding civilizations for his own parodic lifestyle.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)