A Paiwan knife on Ebay

yuanzhumin · 11th June 2010, 12:04 AM

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 :

11th June 2010, 12:04 AM	#6
yuanzhumin Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ex-Taipei, Taiwan, now in Shanghai, China Posts: 180	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 : Attached Images