The Tsou
　　The Tsou tribe, with a population of 6150 according to 2000 figures, are spread across the western slopes of Mt. Morrison and also include the Kanakanbu and Sarroa groups living in the mountainous areas of Hsinyi district in Nantou county, Wufent district in Chaiayi county and Sanmin &Taoyuan districts in Kaohsiung county. The population tends to be densely concentrated within the villages, which lie at altitudes of between 500 meters and 1500 meters above sea level.

　 　The Tsou consist of three distinct groups, known as the Mt. Ali group (who speak the Tsou dialect), the Ssu-she group (who speak the Saaroa dialect) and the Chien-tsai-wu group (who speak the Kanakanabu dialect). Their livelihood is based on mountain farming, with hunting, fishing and animal husbandry forming secondary sources of production. Hunting used to be their mainstay, and today it still takes pride of place in Tsou ceremonies and rituals. Leather and animal pelts still provide the main material for their male clothing. Their craps are mostly millet, dry-field rice and sweet potatoes, and they also pickle game in brine to preserve the meat. They brew wine from millet and the sweet potato and also grow tobacco, although strangely enough they do not chew betel-nut.

　　Traditionally the crafts of pottery-making and weaving were practiced by the womenfolk, although today both of these are dying out. Basketry using rattan and bamboo is still kept up as an important means of making everyday utensils, while the curing of leather and animal hides remains a Tsou specialty.

　　Tsou society is organized on the basis of patrilineal lineages. Each geographical entity inhabiting a certain area centres on a large village or hosa which is the site of the earliest settlement, and at heart of its organization lies the men’s meeting-house or Kuba. As the villagers move farther afield with the opening up of new areas to agriculture, they set up smaller satellite villages or deniohu. Villages affairs are managed by a council of elders headed by the chief of the largest clan, who has the power to summon the other villagers to meetings. All important matters affecting the village are discussed and decided upon by the council of elders. Whose orders are then carried out by the chiefs of each clan. Each village has its own presiding deity or local god. A grand annual festival marking the close of the year is held following the millet-harvest festival, beneath the sacred banyan tree in the area in front of the men’s meeting-house. This tree is identified with the village itself, and is normally forbidden even to touch it.

　　 Within the men’s meeting-house are kept the cage for enemy human heads and the box of fire-striking implements, which have symbolic importance for the village. Both of these have some connection with warfare, since the pouches containing fire-striking implements are taken out of the box and distributed to every warrior in preparation for clearing the undergrowth for new farmland. At the same time each warrior is issued with a protective talisman consisting of a red-dyed bundle of hibiscus fiber, which is also normally kept in the same box. The men’s meeting-house also serves as the training center for the young men of the village, and as the command center for the village militia. Unmarried young men used to sleep there overnight, and the ritual of coming of age is held there following the ritual of enemy heads during the grand year’s-end festival.

　　The small satellite villages have no men’s meeting-house, but they may erect animal-bone huts, which represent those of the larger villages and of each major clan. Only the more important ceremonies are not held in the smaller villages, being reserved for the large village. The Saaroa and Kanakanabu groups share a similar social organization to the Tsou dialect group. However, since their populations are smaller, and in the case of the Kanakanabu they are strongly influenced by the Bunun aborigines who live around them, their cultural characteristics are becoming less and less marked and the men’s meeting house buildings no longer exist.