人類學系

臺灣大學人類學系 週五演講系列

 

講　　題尪仔：一個人性投射（animation）的模式（Ang-a: A Taiwanese Mode of Animation）
講　　者司黛蕊 Teri Silvio（中央研究院民族學研究所研究員）
主　　持林瑋嬪（國立臺灣大學人類學系教授）
時　　間2020.09.25（五）14:00-16:00
地　　點臺灣大學水源校區行政大樓人類學系201室
演講簡介

這個演講將介紹我的新書 “Puppets, Gods, and Brands: Theorizing the Age of Animation from Taiwan”（2019）所提出的 animation 理論。本書探討人們如何將自身的行動力與人格投射至外在的物質或虛擬環境，賦予非人類物件以自己的生命力、靈魂等人性特質。透過在台灣進行十五年的田野調查研究，我發展出一個新的人類學概念：animation（「人性的投射」）。即使是在同一個文化之中，人性投射的方式也多元紛陳；什麼樣的東西適合人們賦予行動力？何種人性／人類特質能被投射到物質世界？此種投射過程又是如何進行？在不同文化或次文化，不同時代間，這些問題的回答都有著歧異。在台灣漢人文化裡，最傳統被投射人性的對象就是「尪仔」或「偶」。──這個範疇包含木偶、神像、公仔等擬人化物品。本次演講，將探討尪仔的特色和行動力的來源，以探究台灣漢人對「人性」的概念。

Abstract:
This talk will introduce part of my book, Puppets, Gods, and Brands, which attempts to outline an anthropological theory of animation, which I define as the process of projecting qualities perceived as human outside of the self and into the environment. My hope is that animation might serve as a complement to “performance,” a conceptual platform which allows us to compare practices across different social fields, different cultures, and different historical eras. Here I posit a Han Chinese/Taiwanese mode of animation which centers on a specific type of object, called ang-a in Holo or ou in Mandarin — a small, three-dimensional, human-form (or anthropomorphized animal or object-form) figure. The ang-a is invested with specific human qualities – personality, affect, and charisma — through specific types of actions – ritual, iconographic, and communicational practices. Examining the qualities of the ang-a and the sources of its agency can help us understand how Han Taiwanese people see the nature of humanity and what divides the human from the non-human.

講者介紹

司黛蕊（Teri J. Silvio），現為中央研究院民族學研究所研究員。

Teri的研究關注在表演藝術傳統、媒體科技以及當兩者交錯所發生的變化。博士論文（1998年，芝加哥大學人類學系）進行與臺灣歌仔戲女演員及她們的粉絲的田野調查，聚焦於歌仔戲歷史中的跨性別表演傳統、女演員及粉絲如何思考台上與台下的性別表現、以及歌仔戲界中的性別概念從廟口的外台戲表演發展至商業劇場、進入電影及電視後的變化。Teri的第二個研究計畫是關注霹靂國際多媒體公司的「數位武俠布袋戲」系列，霹靂布袋戲製作團隊及霹靂迷的次文化。接著，從霹靂布袋戲擴展到各種不同類型的人偶，Teri開始拜訪神明公仔、動漫角色模型等等的設計師及收藏家。2019年由夏威夷大學出版社出版的書，「偶、神明和品牌：從臺灣論動漫時代」（Puppets, Gods, and Brands: Theorizing the Age of Animation from Taiwan），是匯集以上研究之大成，也包含一些對日本動漫粉絲的田野調查。這本書提出「行動性投射」（animation）的人類學概念，可以跟表演（performance）的概念一樣做為跨文化、跨世代比較的平台。如果表演是透過身體表現把身份認同具體化，那麼行動性投射是把生命力、靈魂、意志、等人類特色投射到物質界。透過這個概念，Teri更觀察了臺灣社會裡不同領域的行動性投射的實踐：娛樂、民間信仰、經濟企業及國家認同的建構。Teri最近的研究計畫著眼在東亞及東南亞各處的藝術玩具及當地漫畫界的擴張──藝術玩具及當地漫畫界都在次文化及創意產業的交會處，研究將聚焦於工作與娛樂、地方美學及全球市場邏輯，以及階級、性別和國家身分認同等方面是如何透過新的方式建構並結合。

研究專長：表演藝術、媒體科技、性別、創意產業
研究地點：台灣、香港、中國、新加坡、韓國、泰國、印尼

書籍簡介Puppets, Gods, and Brands: Theorizing the Age of Animation from Taiwan（2019）書籍簡介（夏威夷大學出版社）：

The early twenty-first century has seen an explosion of animation. Cartoon characters are everywhere—in cinema, television, and video games and as brand logos. There are new technological objects that seem to have lives of their own—from Facebook algorithms that suggest products for us to buy to robots that respond to human facial expressions. The ubiquity of animation is not a trivial side-effect of the development of digital technologies and the globalization of media markets. Rather, it points to a paradigm shift. In the last century, performance became a key term in academic and popular discourse: The idea that we construct identities through our gestures and speech proved extremely useful for thinking about many aspects of social life. The present volume proposes an anthropological concept of animation as a contrast and complement to performance: The idea that we construct social others by projecting parts of ourselves out into the world might prove useful for thinking about such topics as climate crisis, corporate branding, and social media. Like performance, animation can serve as a platform for comparisons of different cultures and historical eras.
Teri Silvio presents an anthropology of animation through a detailed ethnographic account of how characters, objects, and abstract concepts are invested with lives, personalities, and powers—and how people interact with them—in contemporary Taiwan. The practices analyzed include the worship of wooden statues of Buddhist and Daoist deities and the recent craze for cute vinyl versions of these deities, as well as a wildly popular video fantasy series performed by puppets. She reveals that animation is, like performance, a concept that works differently in different contexts, and that animation practices are deeply informed by local traditions of thinking about the relationships between body and soul, spiritual power and the material world. The case of Taiwan, where Chinese traditions merge with Japanese and American popular culture, uncovers alternatives to seeing animation as either an expression of animism or as “playing God.” Looking at the contemporary world through the lens of animation will help us rethink relationships between global and local, identity and otherness, human and non-human.

＊演講以中文進行。會後將安排 informal reception 與講者交流＊

本演講毋須報名，歡迎所有師生參加；惟防疫期間請遵守相關規定（例如配戴口罩、量測體溫、實名制與人數管控等）。