小米文化是台灣原住民生活文化的核心範疇，也是「民族科學」的具體表現。學者多認為「民族科學產生於人類的實際生活以及對自然世界的互動和參與」。要理解民族科學必須透過對自然世界的實際參與方能獲得，亦即實踐生活中所需的技術、儀式、藝術、故事、參與、覺知、思考、行動與經驗等等，另外也認為民族科學也涉及神聖經驗，而且這些經驗通常是難以用文字去表述的現象。傳統社會常有的「泛靈論」與「圖騰崇拜」等現象，這裏說明一種事實：民族科學兼有具體與抽象的特質。民族知識典範涉及生活應用的各類技術，廣泛地涉及天文、農業、植物馴化、植物醫葯、動物管理、狩獵、捕撈、冶金術、地質學等具體知識，也涉及神祕的超自然世界。換言之，民族科學是關於植物、動物以及各類自然現象的知識，這知識又具抽象的形而上學與哲學的特質。因而，民族科學其實可以視為一種民族的宇宙觀，或視為一種民族的生態哲學，這樣的知識體系強調「整體而不零碎」、「宇宙與我合而為一」等連續體的概念，於是「人類是屬於世界的一部份」，強調的是「我們與萬物都有關係」。本論文以上述觀點考查阿里山鄒族傳統小米文化所構築的知識典範，並以當代小米祭探討知識典範的變遷、修補及意義蔓延等現象，研究初步認為，傳統知識典範隨著外在時空持續繁衍、重組，而部落內在的動態機制可以促使傳統知識連結現代社會，持續蔓延並形成新的知識、應用及認同。

Millet is the core of life and culture of the indigenous peoplesin Taiwan, as well as the concrete manifestation of native science. Most scholars think native science as the produce of humans' actual life, and their interaction with and participation in the Nature. Therefore, to comprehend native science, we need to actually participate in the Nature, that is to say, to have a part in all aspects of life, such as techniques, rituals, art, stories, participation, perception, thinking, action, and experience. In addition, scholars also think that native science involves sacred experience, which is usually difficult to be explained by words. “Animism” and “totem worship” are prevalent in traditional societies. Here we see that native science has both the concrete and abstract features. Native knowledge paradigms include various techniques applied in life and extensively cover concrete knowledge in astronomy, agriculture, plant domestication, plant medicine, animal management, hunting, fishing, metallurgy, and geology, as well as the abstract, mysterious, and supernatural world. In other words, native science is knowledge related to plants, animals and a variety of natural phenomena, which has abstract features of metaphysics and philosophy. As a result, native science can be regarded as native cosmology or as native eco-philosophy. A knowledge system of this kind emphasizes the concepts of continuum that means “integration, not fragments” and “unity of human and the universe”. “Human beings are parts of the world” means that we are all related. The thesis probed into the knowledge paradigms constructed by the traditional millet culture of Tsou Nation in Mount Ali with the above-mentioned viewpoints and discussed the change, repair, and meaning extension of knowledge paradigms with the contemporary millet festival of the tribe. This study proposes that traditional knowledge paradigms continued to propagate and re-organize with external space and time and that the internal dynamic of the tribe could urge traditional knowledge to connect with the modern society and to continuously extend and form new knowledge and its application and identification.