Seeking the koko’ ta’ay

Tobie Openshaw, Affiliated Research Fellow, Centre of Austronesian Studies, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). Tobie has engaged with the topic of the ta’ay alongside SaiSiyat elders for over a decade. He lectures on Indigenous issues and documentary filmmaking in Taipei. Dean Karalekas, Ph.D. (2016), Affiliated Research Fellow, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), has edited several academic books and is the author of Civil-Military Relations in Taiwan: Identity and Transformation (Emerald Publishing, 2018) and The Men in No Man's Land: A Journey Into Bir Tawil (2020).

Foreword


 Sharing Legends of Short-Statured People across Space and Time


 David Blundell





Acknowledgements


 Tobie Openshaw





List of Figures and Tables


Acronyms


Notes on Contributors





Introduction


Myth and Mystery


 Tobie Openshaw





1 The Vanishing Dwarf


 Domas Ayang





2 Pre-Neolithic Populations as Inspiration for Taiwan’s Mythical Little People


 A Survey of the Available Evidence


 Paul Jen-kuei Li





3 Tracing Negritos and Their Paths in Ancient Taiwan


 New Findings Raise More Questions


 Hsiao-chun Hung, Hirofumi Matsumura, and Mike T. Carson





4 Do Formosanisms in Austronesian Languages Originate from a Substrate of Taiwan’s Earliest Inhabitants?


 Roger Blench





5 Negrito Populations of Insular and Peninsular Southeast Asia


 P. Bion Griffin





6 Ljeljeman and Her Short Friends


 Kereker Palakurulj





7 The Place of koko’ ta’ay among the Saisiyat People


 The Origin of the Legend and Its Instantiation in the PaSta’ay


 Liu Yu-ling





8 Ritual Tools, Ritual Songs, and the ta’ay


 A Lexicon of the PaSta’ay


 Lancini Jen-hao Cheng





9 A History of Research into the Little People


 Finding Patterns in the Formosan Dwarf Legends


 Liu Yu-ling





10 Makasino


 Lulyang Nomin





11 The Primordial Little People Tale-Type


 Tracing Pacific Dwarf Myths throughout the Austronesian Expansion


 Dean Karalekas





12 What Ancient Taiwanese Negritos Might Tell Us about Mystery Hominoids in Indonesia


 Gregory Forth





13 Walking with Dvorovoi


 A History of European Imagery of Little People


 Igor Sitnikov





Index