Seeking the koko’ ta’ay : : Investigating the Origins of Little People Myths in Taiwan and Beyond / / edited by Tobie Openshaw and Dean Karalekas.

• Superior document: Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2024
• TeilnehmendeR: Karalekas, Dean,; Openshaw, Tobie,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2025.; ©2025
• Year of Publication: 2025
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2024.; Brill Series in Taiwan Studies ; 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (313 pages)

This volume, edited by Tobie Openshaw and Dean Karalekas, will guide you on a multidisciplinary journey through Indigenous peoples’ centuries-old lore of “little people” in Taiwan and the Pacific. Learn about the Taiwan SaiSiyat people’s paSta’ay ritual , still held to this day to commemorate the koko ta’ay . Follow the distribution of the legends, interspersed with original stories by modern Indigenous authors. Explore the archaeological find of small-statured negrito remains in Taiwan, and delve into the most current research on the topic by linguists, anthropologists, folklorists, and other specialists to unravel the mystery of what—or who—inspired these ancient legends.

Table of Contents

Foreword -- Sharing Legends of Short-Statured People across Space and Time -- David Blundell -- Acknowledgements -- Tobie Openshaw -- List of Figures and Tables -- Acronyms -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction -- Myth and Mystery -- Tobie Openshaw -- 1 The Vanishing Dwarf -- Domas Ayang -- 2 Pre-Neolithic Populations as Inspiration for Taiwan’s Mythical Little People -- A Survey of the Available Evidence -- Paul Jen-kuei Li -- 3 Tracing Negritos and Their Paths in Ancient Taiwan -- New Findings Raise More Questions -- Hsiao-chun Hung, Hirofumi Matsumura, and Mike T. Carson -- 4 Do Formosanisms in Austronesian Languages Originate from a Substrate of Taiwan’s Earliest Inhabitants? -- Roger Blench -- 5 Negrito Populations of Insular and Peninsular Southeast Asia -- P. Bion Griffin -- 6 Ljeljeman and Her Short Friends -- Kereker Palakurulj -- 7 The Place of koko’ ta’ay among the Saisiyat People -- The Origin of the Legend and Its Instantiation in the PaSta’ay -- Liu Yu-ling -- 8 Ritual Tools, Ritual Songs, and the ta’ay -- A Lexicon of the PaSta’ay -- Lancini Jen-hao Cheng -- 9 A History of Research into the Little People -- Finding Patterns in the Formosan Dwarf Legends -- Liu Yu-ling -- 10 Makasino -- Lulyang Nomin -- 11 The Primordial Little People Tale-Type -- Tracing Pacific Dwarf Myths throughout the Austronesian Expansion -- Dean Karalekas -- 12 What Ancient Taiwanese Negritos Might Tell Us about Mystery Hominoids in Indonesia -- Gregory Forth -- 13 Walking with Dvorovoi -- A History of European Imagery of Little People -- Igor Sitnikov -- Index.