As far as the word order of Wh-questions is concerned, Egyptian Arabic (especially the Cairene dialect) is different from other Arabic varieties, including Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. In most Arabic dialects, the interrogative particle of the Wh-question moves to the initial position in the sentence concerned, whereas in Egyptian Arabic, postposed Wh interrogative sentences are mainly used. Many scholars have considered that this word order resulted from the syntactic influence of the Coptic language, but the validity of this proposal remains to be discussed. In the following, we will first discuss the basic word order in both Egyptian Arabic and Coptic, in terms of syntactic rules, such as topicalization and focalization, and then we will compare the syntactic rules of the Wh-questions as a system, in order to examine the validity of the Coptic influence theory. The basic word order of Egyptian Arabic has changed from VSO to SVO, with the result that some new syntactic structure became necessary in order to mark a topicalized element or a focused element, and the syntactic rules of Coptic interrogative sentences promoted to some extent the language change concerned. The hypothetical word order patterns of Wh-questions will be reconstructed for the premodern diachronic stage of Egyptian Arabic.

Key Words:Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Coptic, language contact, word order change, Whquestion

Taiwan's aborigines have a tradition of making handicrafts, such asweaving, woodcarving, etc., which were once called “primitive art”. In recentyears, their traditional ethnic culture has undergone a re-evaluation. For example, in the last few years weaving has prospered among females in Ulay, a Taiyal village close to Taipei city. The Taiyal museum of Ethnology was founded in this village at the beginning of the 21st century in order to preserve traditional culture. The revival of the weaving culture is closely connected with this movement to re-evaluate Taiyal traditions.
After being forbidden by the Japanese colonial administration, weaving in Ulay almost disappeared until recent years but now plays a part in re-establishing Taiyal identity. Today, weaving not only follows tradition, but new designs are being eagerly developed or entry into the market economy. New styles of dress and ornaments with a combination of tradition and creativity are being produced by aboriginal craftsmen, with fashions suitable for the present day. Weaving culture is now one of the cultural resources of Taiwan's aborigines. This paper describes the activities of Taiwan's aborigines who are utilizing weaving culture as their cultural resource.

Key Words:Taiwan's aborigines, artifact, weaving, identity, modernity

As a research subject, religious women's views and practices have received little attention from either feminist studies, which criticize the maleoriented nature of religion and avoid discussion of religious women or conservative religious studies, which no more than marginally accept feminism. This paper explores how the masculinity of religion may be confronted in order to reduce friction between feminism and religious studies from the perspective of women, who practice Theravāda Buddhism, in a village in Upper Burma (Myanmar).
Despite remarkable male chauvinism in the Buddhist rituals, such as the frequency of bows called gádaw, this study reveals that some women think themselves superior to men in terms of merit making, as women take on important religious roles at both the village and household levels. Other women regard the frequency of bows not as demonstrating the religious inferiority of females but as a merit-making act and evidence of their devoutness.
Although a subtle case, such interpretations that women make about gádaw indicate the possibility of change from within the male-oriented nature of Buddhism. It is not doctrinal interpretation but the voices and practices of women in religion that are important for bridging the gap between feminism and religion.

Key Words:Religious practices of women, Theravāda Buddhism, Spirit (Nat) worship, Merit Making practice, Upper Burma (Myanmar)

In the various forms of ambush hunting such as trapping, the accurate determination of the movement of game and the selection of appropriate locations to set traps play an indispensable role. Although those predictions are believed to be based on the hunter's experiential knowledge, it is unclear how they accumulate the relevant knowledge in the absence of continuous analyses of hunting over a number of years. In this article, I present the patterns of hunting activities and the results of capture of animals over a period of 11 years, by analyzing trapping field maps drawn by an experienced hunter in Iriomote Island, Okinawa. I then discuss how he has practiced hunting by considering the movements of wild boars (his main game) and environmental change.
The results reveal that within the hunting periods, there are yearly differences in terms of the patterns of efficiency regarding the capture of animals and the sex ratio of the animals captured. The hunter refers to the unexpected movements of wild boars as ‘mawari’; and because of these unexpected movements, he has had to rely on trial and error in creating hunting schedules and determining trapping areas. Moreover, based on the fact that he ‘found’ new feeding areas for wild boars in 2005, we can confidently conclude that his hunting activities have an experiential scientific aspect that has deepened his understanding of the behavior and habitat of wild boars through his annual hunting practices. Furthermore, we can also conclude that his knowledge of hunting has been enhanced by his primary orientation to understand the unexpected movements of wild boars by recording his hunting activities.

Key Words:trapping field maps, hunting schedule, decision of trapping areas, prediction of animal movements, hunting practice

There are several villages populated by Tibetans in Lijiang Municipal Region, the southeastern neighbourhood of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where the Tibetan language is mainly spoken. The author has found that the Tibetan inhabitants still use Tibetan in Daan village, Yongsheng County in Lijiang, but this dialect is close to extinction because of the strong influence of Naxi and Chinese.
This paper aims to clarify the dialectal position of the Daan dialect of Khams Tibetan using a comparative method involving both comparison of using a sound correspondences between spoken forms and Written Tibetan (WrT) in multiple Tibetan dialects, and also word forms. In consideration of the geographical situation and the folklore of the Daan Tibetans, the scope of the dialectal comparison covers the dialects spoken in Diqing Prefecture, which can be divided into three main groups: Sems-kyi-nyila, nJol and gTorwa. Of those, the dialects of the Sems-kyi-nyila and nJol groups are compared with the Daan dialect.
ßThe main matter consists of three parts: sound correspondences between WrT and the Daan dialect, comparison of the latter with multiple dialects of Diqing, and comparison of several characteristic word forms. The paper concludes that the Daan dialect is genetically close to the Sems-kyi-nyila dialect group, especially to its Melung subgroup, based on the sound development of the affricate / fricative series.

Key Words:Tibetan, Naxi Nationality, dialectology, dialect classification

The Batanes Islands represent a distinct biogeographic region in the Philippines. It shares numerous indigenous plants with Lanyu-Lutao Islands of Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan as well as the Babuyanes Islands north of Luzon. The flora of Batanes, estimated at more than 700 species of flowering plants, includes an exceptionally high proportion of endemic species. Among the distinct and interesting floristic elements in the islands are the rutaceous plants, which include a high number of Citrus species and Phoenix loureiroi var. loureiroi, a rare date palm.
The citrus family (Fam. Rutaceae) is group of native plants of particular interest for ethnobotany, and the family is represented by many genera in the Batanes. The genus Citrus is exceptionally diverse: seven (64%) of the 11 species present in the Philippines are present in Batanes. A native citrus called dukban, is a local delicacy and is planted in house gardens and in farms of the Ivatan people. It is not known to be cultivated outside the island group.
The indigenous plant voyavoy is a dwarf palm belonging to the genus Phoenix. It has a minor use, locally, as an ornamental plant, and its leaves are culturally important for making men's vests and women's headgear. The survival of this palm is now threatened by habitat destruction (land conversion), excessive burning of the landscape, and animal grazing.

Key Words:Batanes Islands, Philippines, ethnobotany, conservation, Citrus, Phoenix