The Power in Cultural Discourse: Analyzing Bunun Concepts of Power through the Bunun Cultural and Educational Foundation's Cultural Restoration Project.

Culture is always regarded as a useful concept to distinguish the differences among ethnic peoples. When the definition of culture is hazy, those whose definitions of the content of a culture become dominant will have the power to decide ethnic boundaries. These cultural discourses can also produce new forms of differentiation and separation within an ethnic group. There are many studies of the Bunun Cultural and Educational Foundation focusing on cultural industries and internal colonization. This paper attempts to explain transformations in the Bunun's concept of power when the state apparatus interferes in the ethnic affairs. State intervention has restricted the development of the foundation and the revival of the Bunun's traditions of plural competition, capability-oriented spirit, and connection without union. It also explains why the Bunun find it hard to agree upon a single identity. As an aboriginal association, the Bunun Cultural and Educational Foundation has to be strategic in what they say, to whom they say it, and where they say it. The foundation, by influencing the dominant class, awakens their consciousness about their place among Taiwan's ethnic groups and their rights to recompense for historical wrongs. On the other hand, most of elites in the tribe rebuild their own identity and image by criticizing the foundation's conduct. When the Bunun reexamine their culture, different discourses feature in the process. The Bunun have developed diverse kinds of social adaptation under different governors. This case study will help us to understand the process of cultural reconstruction and the arguments that emerge when an ethnic group faces competition among different culture interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]