A little bird told me: Changing human-bird relations on a formosan indigenous territory

Abstract

The tiny bird known as the sisil in some Indigenous communities in Taiwan, and as the grey-cheeked fulvetta (Alcippe morrisonia) by international ornithologists, has long captured the imagination of the human habitants of that island. The bird appears in the practices of Indigenous hunters and religious leaders, as well as in the writings of Kano Tadao (one of Japan's founding anthropologists) and contemporary birdwatchers. Among the many different ways of relating to the sisil, hunters and trappers have the most intimate relationship to and detailed knowledge of bird communication and behaviour. Indigenous hunters report that they (or more accurately their fathers) formerly relied on observations of the sisil to foretell the outcome of a hunt. They may describe the process of observation as a way of learning from the paths taken by birds and mammals through the forest or as a way of communicating with the ancestors, but always encounter the bird in a forest filled with memory. Four stories about the sisil illustrate different historical ways of relating to birds. They also draw attention to how global processes of colonialism, industrialisation and urbanisation have destroyed forests and alienated people from animals.