本文以魯凱人與異族互動與通婚為例，討論在變動的經濟條件 下，魯凱人對異族意象、身分辨識、「族群性」與親屬關係等面向多層次的相互建構關係。筆者首先指出，魯凱人對異族意象的建構，是建立在他們的地方／空間感及其對該地特有的生活方式等之主觀認識，而這些特有的身體慣行即是「異他性」的體現。構成人的異他性會因著魯凱人觀中對個別祖先來源均給同等的重視的文化邏輯從而被彰顯與被辨識。其次，魯凱人對己身的「族群性」建構涉及了人群間的同似性，這是立基於親戚間彼此喜歡的情感安適而被建立的。對照之下，被視為體現「異他性」的昔日獵頭與今日卑南人巫術，在象徵上與情感上係對魯凱親屬建構的否定。隨著資本主義的普遍化，年輕一輩的魯凱人必須前往都會地區從事薪資勞動，而在新的社會條件下，與他人互動轉以情感表意為基礎，主張以浪漫愛做為建立婚姻與家的基礎，並為此衝撞與反抗父母權威。這些清楚指出親屬與「族群性」相互建構的不同樣貌。 當地人與外來者互動時，「魯凱族」這個稱謂是當地人用以定位 自身的集體族群身分， 以彰顯自身在國家整體構成中的位置。而 Taromak 聚落中另一個相對於平地人的在地範疇「山上的住民」（kacalisiya），隨著台灣社會中「四大族群」分類的普遍化，被轉變為包含其他南島民族的人群範疇（「原住民」）。此一被重新創造的 kacalisiya 範疇，提供 Taromak 魯凱人想像全台灣的南島民族為一個共同體的風格與基礎。再者，平民對此一人群分類的政治性挪用，實體化了貴族與漢人的通婚關係，質疑其「血緣關係」的正統性以挑戰其權威的正當性。在當代的情境中，「族群性」被建構並呈現為「（親屬）實質的政治」（politics of substance）。

Based upon the ethnography of inter-ethnic interactions and marriage among the Rukai, this paper explores the interrelations of their images of others, identification, ‘ethnicity,’ and relatedness in changing economies. Firstly, Rukai making of otherness involves their sense of place/space and perceptions of habitual daily practices unique to these places. These vernacular practices are considered to embody otherness and then constitutive of personhood via kinship practices. Secondly, Rukai construct of ‘ethinicity’implies the similarity or sameness among people, referring to affective comfort and to mutual likings among relatives. By constrast, the practices indicative of otherness, such as headhunting and Puyuma shamanistic practices, take on the meaning of the negation of relatedness symbolically and emotionally. In the wake of the generalization of capitalism, however, younger Rukai people’s interactions with others are mainly driven by emotions, and they insist to base their marriages on romatic love, seen as an act of resistance in the eyes of their parents. These shows the changing modalities regarding the mutual constructs of kinship and ‘ethnicity’among the Rukai. When in the face of others, the term ‘Rukai’ is often employed to manifest their position in the constitution of the state. Moreover, the classification of ‘Four Ethnic Groups’prompted in changing social circumstances takes part in transforming the native category kacalisiya into a more encompassing one of social grouping to incorporate other indigenous peoples in Taiwan. Accordingly, this transformed category kacalisiya offers the Rukai with a style and basis to think of all indigenous peoples as an imagined community. However, in order to challenge the authority of high nobles, Rukai commoners’ political appropriation of the transformed category kacalisiya leads to the substantiation of high nobles’marital union with Chinese. In this sense, ‘ethnicity’ in contemporary Rukai context is constructed as ‘politics of substance’.