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Hanitu

In the culture of the Bunun of Taiwan, a hanitu or qanitu is a spirit. The concept does not exactly equate with similar myths from other cultures.

The hanitu is one of three domains of Bunun spiritual thought, another being isang, which equates more to the soul, breath, and heart.[1] It may refer to the spirit of any living creature as well as forms animate or not, such as land, rocks, plants, animals, and humans.[2] All objects contained hanitu.[3] In Malay and Indonesian, the term for ghost, hantu, may be of related origin.

In contrast to other religions and belief systems, multiple spirits can exist in one object/creature, as in the case of humans. They believed bad souls brought illness. With the adoption of Christianity these terms changed, with makuang being equated to devil.[2] Nevertheless, some scholars believe the native concepts were not replaced, but rather Christian thought was added on.[1] Strength of hanitu were innate.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference anu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b "Chapter 3 - The Bunun People" (PDF). Nccur.lib.nccu.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  3. ^ Rik L.J. De Busser. "Towards a grammar of Takivatan Bunun Selected Topics" (PDF). Rdbusser.com. Retrieved 2017-08-18.

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