Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

Elites

The non-spatial arguments of this module, and to an extent the spatial arguments as well, revolve around identity formation and preservation, and therefore they depend upon collective, mass activities. Nevertheless, the central actors are elites, in part for the simple functional reason that their specific activities are easier to trace in the historical sources. More important, however, were those activities. In terms of the interaction between sacred geography and physical geography, elites funded the construction and renovation of the temples where the deities lived; in most cases, they selected the deities enshrined within each temple; they organized the festivals during which the deities walked through their earth-bound territory; they dealt with the colonial state in the process of carrying out these acts; and they interacted across ethnic lines with a much greater degree of frequency and intensity than did non-elites. For these last to functions in particular, we should see the elites of Jilong, and Taiwan more broadly, as the gatekeepers of society.

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