Generation of a new Space

This paper addresses a significant gender issue in the Chinese religious culture of Taiwan. The exclusion of deceased maidens from family and ancestral lineages leaves relations between the living and the dead disordered. People believe that homeless maidens become restless, polluting ghosts after death who will bring misfortune to their family and others in society. The case study examined here is a correction to the exclusion/pollution/homelessness of maiden-spirits through ‘adoption’ in the maiden-temple of Sam-giap. I will analyse how spirit-adoption in the Sam-giap maiden-temple constitutes an attempt to correct that disorder and pollution. I will also argue that one result of the Sam-giap corrective practice is the generation of a new space for maiden-spirits in which a new category that disrupts the opposition of ghosts and ancestors emerges.