拉阿魯哇族和卡那卡那富族去年正式地被認定為新的原住民族。從歷史角度來 看，這變化可說是跟日治時代確立的原住民族分類有密切的關係。當時的民族學者 和官員始終把拉阿魯哇族和卡那卡那富族此兩者看做台灣原住民族中的一個族群 「鄒族」之一部分。本文將圍繞鄒族、卡那卡那富族以及拉阿魯哇族之間的關係自 1895 年至1945 年之間被提出的4 個主要見解檢討。就是說，伊能嘉矩（1900）、 佐山融吉（1915）、小島由道和河野喜六（1918）與馬淵東一（1935）所提出的見 解。透過這些檢討，表現在鄒族、卡那卡那富族以及拉阿魯哇族之研究領域裡被遺 留的很多未能解決之疑問。對既往的日本之民族學者來講，正確理解這些三個群體 之間的關係，就是一個難題。

Last year Hla’alua and Kanakanavu were recognized officially to be the new indigenous groups of Taiwan. Historically one may say that this change was connected deeply with the indigenous group classification established in Japanese colonial period. Ethnologists and colonial administrators at that time regarded consistently Hla’alua and Kanakanavu as two small parts of “Cou”, one of Taiwan indigenous groups. In this paper four important views during 1895-1945 about the relation between Cou, Kanakanavu and Hla’alua are examined; namely those of Ino (1900) , Sayama (1915) , Kojima and Kono (1918) , and Mabuchi (1935) . Examinations here could indicate that many pending questions remained in their studies of Cou, Kanakanavu and Hla’alua. It was a difficult problem for the former Japanese ethnologists to understand the relation of these three groups exactly.