Man and Land in Central Taiwan: The First Two Years of an Interdisciplinary Project

Abstract

Since July, 1971, the author has been engaged in organizing and directing an interdisciplinary project to investigate the facts and factors of cultural variation and change — past and present — in the Choshui and Tatu river valleys in westcentral Taiwan, in the Republic of China. The first year was largely preparatory, during which organizational work and the application for funds were the principal activities, but the subsequent two years (1972–1974) saw extensive field and laboratory work on the part of some forty scholars coming from six disciplines: archaeology, cultural anthropology, geology, geography, zoology, and botany. Funding for the research has come from the National Science Council (Humanities Section) of the Republic of China, Taipei, and from the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of the research, the operational strategy and tactics, and some preliminary results. Because of the nature of the study area, such information may be of considerably wider interest than for the cultural history of the island.