南臺灣六堆客家喪儀中的女性角色

Abstract

在傳統社會，出山（出殯）是一種表現親屬關係價值與倫理的儀式活動。筆者長期關注客家喪葬文化與變遷，尤其是出山儀式中女性所擔綱的角色，以媳婦為主的「開孝」（打火缽）揭開序幕，最終又以媳婦「進湯飯」作結，到發引後的路祭成為外嫁女與夫婿（婿郎禮）的儀式，顯然客家喪葬禮儀中，除了延續父系繼嗣原則與階序性秩序，另賦予客家女性孝道與親情的展演空間。本文從六堆的喪祭實例出發，援引方志與禮儀書相互印證，分析開孝及進湯飯具有社會及信仰的層面，在祖先崇拜及喪服之禮日漸鬆弛的現代，讓家族女性參與，建立能適應少子化社會的家庭倫理之體系，路祭則結合血親及姻親，進行更加細緻之親屬關係的建立，並以信仰切合倫理道德的社會教化功能。

In traditional society, weddings and funeral ceremonies are the main rituals of the human life cycle, in which the relationships between the rights and obligations among the relatives are built. With the rituals in mourning clothes and ancestor worship becoming less strict in modern times, Hakka funerals including burials traditionally allow the participation of female family members, which has established a way to adapt to family ethics in a society with sub-replacement fertility. The roadside worship, which combines blood relatives with the relatives by marriage, can further build up the more delicate relations among the relatives, which serves the purpose of social education by integrating faith with ethical morality.