本文以台東縣卑南鄉Taromak聚落魯凱人衣飾風格的轉變為例，探討商品介入、人觀意象與權力建構的辨證過程。當地魯凱人認為，在聚落舞蹈場合上，平民以地區生產的衣飾商品來打造類似貴族的外貌，是一種仿效。對平民而言，打扮華麗的貴族體現美麗的意象，且具象化了貴族的靈力與品德；同時，平民藉由仿效提升其外貌之美以強化自身靈力，以超越當下的存有。有別於當地人觀強調過去親屬關係對個人當下行動與社會階序的影響乃至於決定性，魯凱平民的仿效實踐乃是個人內心試圖改變既有權力關係之能動的自主展現，從而挑戰了傳統上貴族對外貌與理想人觀意象之建構的壟斷。在衣飾商品日益普遍以及當地人對身體外貌的審美判斷受到學校、教會、視覺科技和媒體的多重影響下，魯凱人仿效的對象和性質及其所涉及內心渴望的個人形象與生活世界的意象顯得相當異質。一方面，魯凱人在仿效卑南族衣飾風格時，強調以個人的知識與技藝完成創新的風格，凸顯個人乃是獨一無二的存有。另一方面，魯凱人以電視上位高權重者的遠方意象為仿效／「模仿」對象，蘊含了他們如何在這類遠方他者意象中想像自我與未來的理想圖像。藉由個人知識與技藝，魯凱人使弱勢、無力的自己有機會貌似遠方有權力的他者，進而貼近理想卻無法現實的生活世界之烏托邦意象。

Using the ethnography of the changing styles of clothing oneself among the Austronesian Rukai in Taiwan, this essay examines the dialectical interplay among the introduction of commodities, images of personhood and an aesthetic of power. On communal occasions of dance, Rukai commoners dress themselves in locally made commodities with designs similar to that of the nobles' clothing, and consider these to be mimetic acts. From the view of commoners, gorgeously-dressed nobles are an image of beauty which personifies their potency and virtues. With the enhancement of beauty in appearance by means of mimesis, commoners think that they are consequently empowered to transcend the here-and-now conditions of their existence. Therefore I argue that commoners' mimetic acts aesthetically challenge the nobles' monopoly over the form of expression concerning an ideal image of personhood in the community. Due to the prevalence of clothing commodities and aesthetic judgments towards appearances being influenced by education as well as the media, the objects the Rukai mimic have become diversified; meanwhile even the desired images of personhood and sociality among the residents are heterogeneous. Significantly, the Rukai imitate the clothing style mostly used by the Puyuma on the grounds that they want this style-embodied 'otherness' to make them unique and distinct from other residents in the village. What is more, the face that the Rukai mimic, the distant image of a power-holder on the TV, implies not only the enactment of self-transformation into a desired personhood, but also how such an image allows them to approach the utopian image of imagined sociality beyond their reach.