The Ami
　　The Ami tribespeople live to the east of the central Taiwan mountain range, in a long narrow region along the Pacific coast known as the Taitung rift valley. This extends from the Ch’i-lai plain near Hualien city in the north, down to T’ai-ma-li south of Taitung in the south and to the Hengchun area in the southeast. On the whole the Ami are plains dwellers with only a tiny minority living in mountain valleys, and their places of habitation all lie under 500 metres above sea level. Numerous rivers and streams flow into the Taitung rift valley, and although these are unnavigable due to their swift currents they do form 32 alluvial fans in the valley. The climate differs slightly between the northern and southern parts of the region, with the mean temperature in January being 17.2℃ at Hualien and 18.9℃ at Taitung, while both places register the same July temperature of  27.3℃. Annual rainfall is about 2,000 mm, although the heaviest daily rainfall can be in excess of 500 mm. The relative lack of sunshine severely affects the growth of agricultural crops in the area. The typhoons which hit Taiwan in the summer and autumn usually strike the east coast first causing heavy damage, with particularly serious flooding from water running off the mountains.

　　The Amis, with a population of 148,328﹙according to 2000 figures﹚, are the largest aboriginal group on Taiwan in population terms. Spread along the Taitung rift valley south of the Liwu River and along the east coast plain, the Ami tribal area includes the towns and rural districts of Tungho, Chihshang, Changpin, Kuanshan, Chengkung, Peinan and Taitung city in Taitung county; Hsincheng, Chian, Shoufeng, Fenglin, Kuangfu, Fengpin, Juisui, Yuli and Fuli in Hualien county; and Mutan and Manchou in Pingtung county. They have lived in the plains since early times.

　　Living within this narrow region, the Ami can be differentiated into five groups according to distinctions of geography, customs and language. There are the northern Ami, the central Ami consisting of the coastal and Hsiu-ku-luan groups, and the southern Ami consisting of the Peinan and Hengchun groups. The Ami form a unique group among the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. Their culture differs considerably from the more westerly groups, and as far as their material culture is concerned, they long ago entered the stage of cultivating paddy fields using oxen. While fishing is another important means of production, hunting is now merely carried out for ritual or recreational purposes. As for their social organisation, the Ami are a matrilineal society in contrast to the patrilineal society of the westerly aboriginals. Other special features of their society are the well developed system of age-grades and the village councils or men’s meeting-houses.

　　The villages of the Ami are relatively large, with an average population of about 500 persons, the smallest having as few as two or three hundred while the largest may exceed one thousand inhabitants. Since their system of cultivation is quite advanced their land is capable of supporting a considerable population, which accounts for the villages having such large concentrations of inhabitants. The Ami are a typical matrilineal society in which women occupy a position of superiority in the clan while men are subordinate. In order to balance out the status of women in the clan, the men have developed their authority in the organization of each locality, which has brought about a strict organizational system within each Ami village. Each village constitutes a unit with its own overall government. The centre of the village is the village council or men’s meeting-house, and underpinning the whole organization of the village is a strict system of age-grades in which those belonging to the senior grades in terms of age have authority in dealing with village affairs.

　　 The ecological environment in which the Ami live has a close bearing on their material life. In building their houses and associated structures the main beams and posts are made of hard woods such as the fine-grained elm Abelicea serrata or the evengrained cedar Machilus nanmu. The subsidiary beams are usually of bamboo or betel-nut palm, while the walls are made of a double layer of plaited dwarf bamboo. The walls of the main house consist of double layers of plaited dwarf bamboo with grass thatch in between to block out the cold wind. Usually there are couches of plaited dwarf bamboo or woven rattan in the living quarters, with a fire pit in the corner. The cookhouse and storage room for farming tools are built beside the main house forming an L-shaped structure with a threshing floor in the middle.

In the field of handicrafts, in addition to the usual woven bamboo utensils the Ami are the only aboriginal people on mainland Taiwan to have preserved the art of pottery making ﹙the Yami of Orchid Island also make pottery﹚. Their pottery is always made by the womenfolk and consists of food vessels or containers such as water ewers, rice pots and earthenware steamers. They also make sacrificial vessels which are the private property of individuals. These differ in size and have different names according to whether they are owned by men or women. When the owner dies they are buried in the owner’s grave as grave-goods.

Ami Domestic Buildings
a) Ordinary dwellings
　　Most houses are demolished and rebuilt after having been occupied for ten years or so, but if a family is expanding quickly the need for space often means that it is rebuilt after five or six years. As the children grow up and marry, they usually build themselves a separate small house after three or four years when they themselves have a couple of children. The thatched grass roof must be replaced every three or four years. House building and repair usually takes place during August and September in the lull following the harvest.

　　A sacrificial ritual must be held before building a new house or demolishing an old one. When sons or daughters wish to live independently their parents designate a nearby plot for them to build a house on. Before construction begins the father offers wine and rice cake to the gods in the family home, praying that they may assist in the rapid completion of the new house. Before demolishing an old house the householder offers wine, glutinous rice cake, glutinous rice dumplings and betel nuts to the gods within doors before informing them that the old house is going to be demolished and inviting them into the new house when it is built.

　　Ami domestic buildings are built flat on the ground, and consist of two types: (I) single-room dwellings with a central doorway, and (ii) multiple room dwellings with side doorways. The former type predominates among the northern Ami, and the latter type among the southern Ami, while the central Ami use a mixture of both. In the traditional dwelling a single room served for sleeping, resting and cooking, and although grass mats, blankets and mattresses, clothing, cooking utensils and farming tools were all kept in the one room each had its fixed place. After Ami agriculture developed from the slash-and-burn stage to tilling arable land, the arrangement of their domestic buildings gradually evolved so that the cookhouse and tool storehouse were located outside the main house. To one side of the latter was added a stable for the oxen.

b) Other subsidiary buildings
　　Every household has its granaries, with normal households owning two and wealthy households owning over ten, or even twenty or more. Ami granaries are built at ground level and have no boards to guard against rats. There is a pigsty near each main house. The stable for oxen, the shed for the plough and ox-cart and the manure heap are all constructed at a short distance from the main house and do not directly adjoin it. The chicken coop is built to one side of the main house

Ancestral Shrine of Tavarong Village
　　According to legend, the ancestors of Tavarong village were all Sky Gods living in the south. In the fourth generation there were six brothers and sisters, and because the Sea Spirit took a liking to the youngest sister and insisted on having her as his wife the whole family went into hiding. Nevertheless the Sea Spirit discovered them and in his wrath caused a flood and snatched the youngest sister away as his bride. The mother was heartbroken for loss of her daughter and turned into a seagull on the seashore, while the father climbed up a cliff and turned into a snake-tree overlooking the sea. The oldest brother fled into the mountains and later became the ancestor of the Atayal tribe, while the second brother ran away to the west and became the ancestor of a tribe over there. The third child, a daughter, ran off to the south and became the ancestor of the Bunun tribe. The fourth and fifth children, brother and sister, floated away on the flood in a big wooden mortar to Mao-kung Mountain and later married and became husband and wife. They gave birth in turn to a snake, a frog and a lizard, and were very distressed. One day the Sky Gods came to help them and allowed them to give birth to three daughters and one son. When these children grew up, the youngest son together with his first and third sisters moved from the mountain down into the plain, while the second sister moved on her own to Ch’i-mi village and became an ancestor of that place.

　　The younger brother and his two sisters felt dissatisfied with the plain and moved several times, finally settling in the village of Tavarong. Two two sisters became the earliest ancestors of the Kakitaan or ancestral shrine of Tavarong village. Several generations later, after a flood, the Sky Gods told the villagers of Tavarong to build an ancestral shrine and to institute a system of priests so that the ancestors could more easily return and protect the village. But the villagers paid no attention to the Sky Gods' instructions.

　　One day some Ami tribesmen living in Hualien attacked Tavarong village and took up position at the site of the presentday ancestral shrine or Kakitaan. None of the villagers dared to meet them in battle, but there was one layabout (matoaai) who showed great bravery. He led his fellow villagers in worship of the ancestors and the Sky Gods' pleading for their assistance, and then led a group of warriors into battle and routed the enemy utterly. Once he returned to the village, everyone agreed to carry out the Sky Cods' instructions and build an ancestral shrine. With the enemy's severed heads they made sacrifice to their ancestors and to the Sky Gods(the sun and moon), praying that the village might enjoy a plentiful harvest. The Ami are a matrilineal society in which women are the focus of inheritance within the family. Although ownership of the ancestral shrine is inherited by the female descendants of the original sisters, it is always the owner's brother who conducts the rituals and is generally in charge. Often the brother may be married into his wife's family, but once a ritual ceremony is to　be held he returns to his own home and takes up his ritual duties　assisted by his sisters.

　　Basically the ancestral shrine is a typical house, but it possesses very important meaning. It represents the focal point of a tribal lineage, whose fortunes are closely linked to the continued survival of the shrine.

　　In sum, it represents certain cultural elements of the village tribespeople, such as the system of inheritance within the lineage, the system of religious sacrifice, and the system of property ownership and distribution. The existence of the shrine and the strength it embodies allows the village society to constitute a systematic and thriving organisation.