本文以一則布農小兒意外事件的民族誌資料為基礎，探討其家人與家族成員對此意外事件的詮釋、爭論與理解。筆者發現，對此事件的詮釋與爭論實際上涉及當代布農人幾個不同宗教信仰（包括布農族傳統信仰、基督宗教、漢人民間信仰與一貫道的信仰等）之間的互動、競爭與協商。值得注意的是，透過實際田野資料的分析發現，這些不同的宗教信仰雖有其獨特的觀點與主張，但彼此之間的差異並非那麼絕對與不可跨越。這些論述基本上是奠基在一些共通的布農文化觀念，例如他們對hanitu觀念以及人與群體關係的想法，也就是布農人的人觀。在日常生活情境中，這些不同的觀點與想法透過實際發生的事件彼此競逐、協商與妥協，而最終被實踐。

This paper, by examining a child accident, is focused on the diverse religious interpretations, controversies and understandings among the Bunun people in their contemporary daily lives. It is suggested that these different religious interpretations and proposals seem to reveal people’s diverse religious affiliations, including Bunun traditional religion, Christianity, the Han Chinese folk religion and Yikuandao. However, by analysing closely the data through field study, I argue that there is no outstanding difference among these religious beliefs although each of them holds distinct viewpoint and idea on the surface. Their various discourses are in fact based on some communal Bunun cultural concepts, such as the idea of hanitu (spirit) and the relation between individual and group. In other words, it is the Bunun idea of personhood that they all concern. This paper illustrates how these diverse ideas and concepts struggle, negotiate, compromise and conciliate in the contemporary Bunun social lives.