dc.description.abstract | In recent years, the practice of sacrificing holy pigs has been frequently criticized by animal protection groups due to inhuman feeding, transportation (which frightens the pigs) and slaughter (stunning) processes. Thus, holy pigs suffer throughout their lives. The groups have constantly protested and called for the cancelation of holy pig weight competitions or the practices of other substitutions. However, this traditional practice has lasted for hundreds of years among the Minnan and Hakka people. Besides, although temples worship different gods, they share the same ritual of holding holy pig weight competitions. From the perspectives of ethnic groups and temples, it is the tradition of their religion and culture and should be maintained and passed on. Therefore, there is a value conflict between the practice of sacrificing holy pigs and animal welfare. With increased awareness in multi-social cultures and animal ethics, we should attempt to seek a solution during the social change.
According to the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this study classified holy pig sacrifice in Taiwan from the past to the present into three phases: the primary network (before 2003), the process network (from 2003 until the first half of 2019) and the convergence network (the second half of 2019 until present). In these three stages, through translation, the actants’ perspectives, positions and attitudes were used to reconstruct the network according to the dynamic interaction among actants.
In the conflict between religious culture and animal welfare, we should first find if holy pig sacrifice is at the core of the doctrines. Does it violate the religious spirit? This study argued that besides weighing the priority by considering the interests of both parties through the interests weighing model suggested by Alasdair Cochrane, we should also follow principle of proportionality of the administrative law. In other words, when handling this conflict, the necessity of holy pig sacrifice should be considered first. Moreover, the two sides should respect and tolerate each other from the perspective of a pluralistic society. This should be a more realistic and flexible solution to this conflict.
Past studies on the controversy of holy pig sacrifice focused on the perspectives of human stakeholders. However, in this issue, human and non-human participants in the network of ANT should be treated equally in order to thoroughly explore the context of the problems and cope with controversy. Through ANT , this study analyzed the relation among actants in the network, including humans (temple administrators, breeders of holy pigs, followers, community development association, cultural and historical workers, governmental authorities, animal protection groups, people who care about animals and villagers) and non-humans (pigs). In this study, ANT was based on a heterogeneous combination that resulted in equality between humans and non-humans who share the same speaking rights. It focused on the interaction between holy pig sacrifice culture and animal welfare. Therefore, when non-human actants (pigs) were mentioned in this study, they were referred to in the third person of he which equaled to human and the first person of I would be used for the words of the pig.
In the ANT research procedures, all actants passed through a holy pig sacrifice and animal welfare platform constructed by the obligatory passage point (OPP) as a funnel. All human and non-human actants in ANT were invited to participate in the discussion. Through the translation process, the actants attempted to comprehend, communicate and agree with each other due to the lack of common consensus on the holy pig sacrifice so that a common solution may be reached. | en_US |