ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the movement for aboriginal self-government in Taiwan in the light of Pierre Bourdieu’s conception of the “cultural arbitrary,” and knowledge as heterodoxy/orthodoxy/doxa. This is an experiment in testing Bourdieu’s ideas to interpret a political movement. To start, some clarification of the key terms “cultural arbitrary” and “self-government” is required. However, and more important in the perspective of this argument, the National Assembly did pass an amendment to the constitution, affirming: “The State shall, in accordance with the will of the ethnic groups, safeguard the status and political participation of the aborigines.” Research, debate, and eventually negotiation on aboriginal self-government may be a matter of decades, as they have been in Canada, but aboriginal self-government will be on Taiwan’s political agendas as long as there are people who define themselves as Taiwan Aboriginal People.
