Professor
Chinghsiu Lin
林靖修
Social Anthropology
Reaserch
● Research Interests
• Ecological anthropology
• Anthropological studies of water
• Trail making and walking culture in indigenous society
• Kinship, relatedness and houses
• Humanity GIS and Soundscape
• Public anthropology
• Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty
• Indigenous studies in the Truku society and Bunun society
My research supervision spans a wide range of topics across indigenous societies in Taiwan and Austronesian-speaking peoples of the Pacific. These include studies on the culture of permaculture cob house construction, an ethnography on pigeon pea and a Paiwan grandmother's foodscape, social and cultural change among the Amis, ritual and cultural practices associated with the swing ceremony among the Puyuma, weaving culture of the Bunun, the intersection of Christianity and traditional beliefs among the Bunun, youth identity formation among the Truku, and the food culture of the Chamorro people of Guam. At the doctoral level, I have supervised dissertations on scuba diving and indigenous maritime culture, and on the transmission and performance of Amis music and dance.
● Background
Chinghsiu Lin has conducted extensive ethnographic research among indigenous peoples in Taiwan, with a particular focus on the Truku and Bunun communities. He completed his doctorate in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, after which he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for GIS, Research Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences (RCHSS), Academia Sinica, before taking up a post as Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU). Since 2014, he has been a member of faculty in the Department of Public and Cultural Affairs and the Master's Program in Austronesian Studies at National Taitung University, where he currently serves as Director of both the Doctoral Program in Austronesian Studies and the Centre for Austronesian Culture. He has also been actively engaged in the wider anthropological community, serving as General Secretary of the Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology (TSAE) from 2018 to 2019, and as President of TSAE from 2024 to 2025.
● Courses Taught (2022-2026)
• For postgraduates
Fieldwork Research (M.A.), 2025,26
Environmental Governance and Sustainable Development (Ph.D.), 2024
Social and Cultural Anthropology, (M.A.), 2022, 23,24
Kinship, Gender, and Culture (M.A.), 2022
• For undergraduates
Kinship and Gender Studies
Ecological Anthropology
Applied Anthropology
History of Civilization
Advanced Cultural Anthropology
Publications
● Hornor and Rewards
2024-25 President of Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology
2025 NSC/MOST Special Outstanding Talent Award
2024 NSC/MOST Special Outstanding Talent Award
2023 NSC/MOST Special Outstanding Talent Award
2021 NSC/MOST Special Outstanding Talent Award
2010 Radcliffe-Brown and Firth Trust Funds for Social Anthropological Research
● Current Research Programs
Cultural Practices and Natural Resources Management in the Contemporary Truku Society (2025-27)
Walking, knowing and pursuing indigenous sovereignty: Sensory ethnographic research on footprints of the Bunun People in the mountain (2022-24)
Making, Dwelling, and Environment: An anthropological study of house and property relations by the preservation of stone houses and cultural heritage in Bunun society (2020-22)
Public Participation, Cultural Property, and Applied Anthropology: A Case study of Conservation and Management of Cultural Heritage in Bunun Society, Taiwan (2019-20)
Sound, Space and Modern Life: A Soundscape Mapping Project in Indigenous Society, Taiwan (2018-2020)
● Selected Publications
2025 Indigenous Peoples and Economics. Encyclopedia of Taiwan Studies Online. Brill.
2025 Indigenous Peoples and Class Relations. Encyclopedia of Taiwan Studies Online. Brill.
2024 Privatization and Social Relations: Meanings of women’s land in the modern indigenous society, Taiwan. International Journal of Environment, Architecture, and Societies 4 (2): 50-62.
2023 Practice Rhythm, Temporality, and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Plan: The Program for the Renovation of Stone-houses in the Mountain Area in Bunun Society. Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology 99: 113-147.
2023 Cultural Policy in Practice: The case of old house renovation programs in Indonesia and Taiwan. Social adaption of indigenous people in the traditional house to a new modern habit. Pontianak: Tanjungpura University Press. (with Purwanto, Semiarto A. and M. Arief Wicaksono).
2022 Culture, Land Reclamation Movement and Property Relations: Reflections on the Language of Property in Indigenous Mapping Projects in Truku Society, Taiwan. In Social Theorizing in Contemporary Taiwan: Critique, Creativity and Transformations. Giri, Ananta Kumar eds. Palgrave Macmillan Publisher.
2017 The Interweaving of Water Infrastructure and Society: A Case Study of the Construction and Management of Irrigationin Kalibuan Community, Taiwan. Taiwan Journal of Anthropology 15(2): 97-146.
2015 Pigs for money: Kinship and the monetisation of exchange among the Truku. In Living Kinship in the Pacific, Christina Toren and Simmone Pauwels eds. Pp. 36-59. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
2011 The Circulation of Labor and Money: Symbolic Meanings of Monetary Kinship Practices in Contemporary Truku Society, Taiwan. New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry 5(1): 27-44
Education
Ph.D., Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, 2010
M.A. by research, Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, 2005
B.A. History, National Taiwan University, 1998