本文試圖索阿里山鄒族的傳統家屋，包括其空間形式、構築、使用功能以及文化喻意，進而觀察其日據時期的變遷。採用的方法主要是回顧眾多民族誌與田野訪談。研究主要發現如下：可容納亞氏族多人之鄒人傳統家屋以日出、日落為軸的橢圓平面、如天幕的茅草頂木構架以及室內葬習俗，反映了族人日出／日沒；生命／死亡之宇宙觀；又以男女性別、粟神／穀倉、獵神／獸骨架原則安排了日常生活，並透露出住屋水平空間向度有人體之喻意。然而，因為日人之統治，現代衛生觀念、產業，主流社會材料、技術、美學之引進，以及皇民化之衝擊影響。隨帶現代化生活的出現，傳統家屋自圓的文化叢結體迅速成為過時的結構物。僅餘下縮小變形的祭屋（emo-no-peisia），是為此文化叢結體的現代結晶。

This paper attempts to study the traditional dwelling of the Alisan Tsou in terms of its spatial layout, structure, functions, and cultural meanings; and traces its changes under Japanese rule. Ethnographs were examined and field interviews with elders were conducted. The investigation revealed that the traditional Alisan Tsou dwelling, which can accommodate a sub-clan, has an oval floor plan with the sun’s trajectory from sunrise to sunset as its axis. Its sky-like thatched roof and the ritual of in-house burial reflect the Tsou’s cosmological concepts of day versus night and life versus death. Daily living and taboos of the Alisan Tsou are organized around the principles of female/male, agricultural deity/hunting god, and granary/structure for animal skeleton. In fact, the structural layout of traditional Tsou dwelling reflects a metaphor of the human body. Along with Japanese rule came the introduction of modern concepts of personal health and hygiene, industrial innovations, new materials and technology as well as aesthetic perspectives for architecture. All these had impact on the Tsou traditional way of life which was gradually taken over by modern lifestyle. The self-contained traditional dwelling withered to become a structure of the past and what remained was the transformed and much reduced “emo-peisia”, serving as a prevailing symbol of the cultural complex.