A Paiwan knife on Ebay

[migueldiaz]

thanks a lot yuanzhumin for the comments.

there's a lot of commonality all right between aboriginal taiwanese and ancient filipino beliefs.

in the philippines' case, the serpent is also believed by the ancient filipinos as their aid and protector. and said belief certainly found its way on our traditional designs (e.g., fabric, dance, woodcarving, weapons design, etc.).

[KuKulzA28]

Too expensive for me, but good to know it is in good hands!

I was wondering, how would you differentiate this Paiwan knife from a Rukai or Puyuma knife? They all have similar motifs and blade styles if I remember correctly... what makes this knife definitely Paiwanese?

Thanks

[yuanzhumin]

Because of a first classification established by the Japanese anthropologists when their country colonized the island over one hundred years ago, it has been for a long time, considered that the Puyuma, the Rukai and the Paiwan were making one ethnic group. Due to some obvious differences, the individual ethnic identity of the two smaller groups that are the Rukai (population : 12000) and the Puyuma (pop. 10000) have finally been recognized and established distinctly from the Paiwan (pop. 70000).
The three tribes are speaking Paiwanic languages and have strong similarities in their cultures. But they are also very different in many ways. The languages are from the same family, but still quite different (for example, think about Latin languages and how French, Italian and Spanish became different): even among the Rukai, inside a same valley, from one village to the other, it can be difficult to understand each other and communicate.
So languages evolved differently, and so are the customs or even the traditional patterns in the material culture, what brings me back to the swords. In fact, they are very different in style if you pay attention, and a glance usually is enough to immediately distinguish a Paiwan knife from a Rukai’s one or a Puyuma’s one.
So, for the Paiwan swords, you already have seen two of them recently on this forum:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=paiwan
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=paiwan
But here is for the Rukai’s swords (the first pictures in the thread are of a Rukai sword presented by Rick, and there are also other samples I displayed further on the first page of the same thread):
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ighlight=rukai
Now the Puyuma swords :

[KuKulzA28]

Ahhh! I see!
Now that you point it out, I see the differences very clearly. Thanks!

It is interesting what you say about the Paiwan, Rukai, and Puyuma sharing many cultural similarities. If I'm not mistaken, it is almost a parallel with the Atayal with whom the Taroko/Seediq and the Saisiyat share a lot of cultural similarities. And the laraw and it's sheath of the Tayal, Seediq, and Saisiyat share many similarities as well. They have the curved blade and either a wooden or metal socket handle. The sheaths all tend to be the "fish-shaped" kind. I don't know if the fish shape is intentional, since they range from fish-shaped to only abstractly fish-shaped depending on the piece.

Say, do you know if the Paiwan, Rukai, and Puyuma still have blades being made today?

I know for a fact that in Tahsi/Dasi there's some Hakka who make laraw for Tayal (mine was from there), and that in Tongmen, Hualien the Taroko/Seediq make blades as well... always good to see such traditions maintained.