「賣某少頭嘴」：從「以妻為貨」現象窺探臺灣底層社會的能動性（從清領到日治初期）

Abstract

本文探究清領到日治初期，臺灣中、下社會存在的「以妻為貨」現象。當丈夫貧極、病篤，無力治生養家時，唯有出此下策、典賣他所僅剩的資產－他的結髮妻子；或有生性浮浪、蕩盡家財，而以嫁賣、縱姦為續命之所憑。在生產方式保持穩定的時代，婚姻相對是傳統社會結構的原動力。作者利用清代刑科檔案、契約文書、日治報章時文、風俗調查報告、法院判決書等等，呈顯漢人婚姻、家庭體系中的女性交換，不乏在習俗實踐的表象下，挾帶走私了或暫或久、或隱或顯的賣春成分；同時揭露近代早期，潛藏於販夫走卒心態上的婚姻譜系與位階關係，他們的能動性格、及其對菁英價值的創造性轉化。

This study examines the phenomena of ＂taking a wife as a commodity＂ among the substratum in Taiwan from the Qing dynasty to the early era of Japanese colonial rule. In an era when the mode of production maintained stability, marriage stood at the center of the traditional social structure. However, men who were unable to support their family due to poverty, illness, indolence, or extravagance turned to wife-selling and mortgaging as a survival strategy. Sometimes the husband married off his wife to someone else, or else tolerated or abetted his wife's illicit intercourse. The author utilizes cases from the Qing legal documents, contracts, journalism, customs investigation reports, Japanese court verdicts, and other sources to investigate sex work within marital contexts. Understanding this topic allows researchers to reconstruct marital pedigrees in the Taiwanese substratum, and detect how they employed their agency to transform the values of the upper stratum.