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Saisiyat mingles among Atayal and Hakka. Hence, most of the Saisiyat speak both Atayal dialect and Hakka as the daily common languages. One can not help thinking of Saisiyat’s mysterious legend—the festival of Pas-taai, known as “festival of the short people.”
Allegedly, the Saisiyat and the Taai lived close by each other. The Taiai passed on the knowledge of agriculture, medicine, worship, and folklore to the Saisiyat. The Saisiyat treated the Taai as guests of honor who were invited to join their festivals for wine and fun. Yet the Taai were accused of molesting the Saisiyat women. After years of resistance, the Saisiyat decided to kill off many Taai. The remnants of the Taai cursed the Saisiyat to suffer from annual catastrophe and famine, which came true later. Accordingly, the Saisiyat have been holding the Festival of Pas-taai in the forms of songs and dances, which the Saisiyat pray that the Taai will not bring harm to the Saisiyat. The commemorative festival of the short people has been performed until now in the midst of complex between the Saisiyat and the Taai. Moreover, there are many taboos relevant to the festival of the short people in the daily life to be followed. It also indicates how much respect the Saisiyat hold for the Taai.
The Saisiyat is a tribe with various divided sub-tribes populated within one group. Each sub-group holds the same equal status to the others, with rare one central sub-group as the leading one.
A. Social System in General
The family system of the Saisiyat is organized into patrilineal clans, with the males as the household leaders. Women are not allowed to practice authority power unless there are no men in the family.
The Saisiyat clan is composed of the people with same last name, who share the same patrilineal ancestors. The Saisiyat are mostly named after animals, plants, astrology, or physical characteristics.
The clans possess multi-societal functions as follows:
1. The members with the same last name can not marry each other.
2. Members of different clans have distinguished important festivals.
3. Clans are the fundamental crews for communal farming, housing, and hunting.
B. Property Inheritance
Family and individual property heritage go to the elder son, and the regulations are as follows:
1. The majority of housing and primary family properties are inherited by the eldest son or the youngest son, and the rest is proportionally distributed among other children. Only daughters who married other men into the natal families are entitled to family properties.
2. Individual male properties belong to the male patrilineal sons, and the female properties are inherited by the matrilineal daughters.
C. Matrimony
Prior to the Japanese colonization, exchange marriage was popularly practiced by the Saisiyat when both families exchanged daughters for mutual marriages. In addition, there were also marriage trafficking and labor marriage. Marriage by capture was the remarriage ceremony taken when both parents agreed but the bride didn’t agree so marriage by capture would be regulated. Exchange marriage transforms into the contemporary marriage practice and the labor marriage is turned into uxorilocal marriage. Marriage trafficking still exists for extra-tribal marriages but marriage by capture is extinct.
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