John R. Shepherd


John R. Shepherd Associate Professor Ph.D. Stanford University 1981
My research applies my interest in historical dynamics, political economy, and conflict theories of society to issues in Chinese society at both the macro level of empire and region and at the micro level of marriage, gender, and domestic groups. I am concerned with research design, and the critical examination and testing of competing hypotheses, even those labeled as "interpretations." In conducting my dissertation fieldwork I became aware that the role of Taiwan's non-Han aboriginal groups was a neglected chapter in the history of Taiwanese society. This led to two streams of research, one on the ethnographic history of the Siraya, and the other, represented in my book, Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600-1800. This is a historical-anthropological analysis of how trade networks and commercial agriculture drew Chinese settlers to the Taiwan frontier, and how the late imperial Chinese state acted to mediate relations between settlers and aborigines, extract revenues, and further its strategic interests in the island. My interest in Chinese frontier statecraft and the historical interaction of Han and non-Han cultures has led to work on the historical ethnography of the Siraya. Since the seventeenth century the Siraya have adapted to Taiwanese society through intermarriage and cultural transformation, but they have also retained a sense of a separate identity. I am writing a series of essays based on fieldwork and the ethnographic descriptions of the Siraya that survive from every century from the seventeenth to the twentieth. I am currently researching demographic parameters of marriage strategies in Chinese society. Anthropologists have been puzzled by the discovery of a surprising degree of regional variation in the forms of marriage in early twentieth-century Taiwan and have offered a variety of hypotheses to explain this variation. I am challenging these explanations with research that documents how sharply differentiated regional patterns of disease affected sex-differential mortality, the marriage market, and marriage strategies. Specializations Historical anthropology, political economy, social organization, marriage and domestic groups, legal anthropology, demographic anthropology, Chinese culture and society, Taiwanese aboriginal culture and society. Courses Marriage, Mortality and Fertility; Chinese Family and Religion; Marriage, Gender, and Political Economy; China: Empire and Nationalities; Social Organization; Ethnographic Writing and Data Analysis Selected Publications 2006a - Fertility and infant and early childhood mortality: some lessons on stopping behavior from Taiwanese and Dutch cases. John R. Shepherd, Jan Kok, & Hsieh Ying-hui. In Positive or Preventive? Reproduction in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1940, Chuang Ying-chang, Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf, eds., pp. 163-197. Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers. 2006b - Group Identity and Fertility: an evaluation of the role of religion and ethnicity in the Netherlands and Taiwan. John R. Shepherd, Pan Inghai, Jan Kok, Claudia Engel, Theo Engelen & Melissa Brown. In Positive or Preventive? Reproduction in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1940, Chuang Ying-chang, Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf, eds., pp. 121-161. Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers. 2004 - Some Demographic Characteristics of Chinese Immigrant Populations: Lessons for the Study of Taiwan's Population History. In Maritime China in Transition, 1750-1850, Wang Gungwu and Ng Chin-keong, eds., pp. 115-137. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. 2003 - Rethinking Sinicization: Processes of Acculturation and Assimilation. In State, Market and Ethnic Groups Contextualized, Bien Chiang and Ho Ts'ui-p'ing, eds., pp. 133-150. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica. 2001 - Smallpox and the Patten of Mortality in Late Nineteenth-Century Taiwan. In Asian Population History, Liu Ts'ui-jung, James Lee, et al., eds., pp. 270-291. Oxford University Press, 1999 - The Island Frontier of the Ch'ing, 1684-1780. Chapter 4 of Taiwan: A New History, Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., pp. 107-32. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. 1996 - From Barbarians to Sinners: Collective Conversion Among Plains Aborigines in Qing Taiwan, 1859-1895. In Christianity in China, D.H. Bays, ed., pp. 120-137. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1995 - Marriage and Mandatory Abortion among the Seventheenth-century Siraya. American Ethnological Society Monographs. 1993 - Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600-1800. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1988 - Rethinking Tenancy: Explaining Spatial and Temporal Variation in Late Imperial and Republican China. Comparative Studies in Society and History 30(3):403-31. 1986 - Sinicized Siraya Worship of A-li-tsu. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 58(1):1-81.

Associate Professor
Ph.D. Stanford University 1981

My research applies my interest in historical dynamics, political economy, and conflict theories of society to issues in Chinese society at both the macro level of empire and region and at the micro level of marriage, gender, and domestic groups. I am concerned with research design, and the critical examination and testing of competing hypotheses, even those labeled as "interpretations."

In conducting my dissertation fieldwork I became aware that the role of Taiwan's non-Han aboriginal groups was a neglected chapter in the history of Taiwanese society. This led to two streams of research, one on the ethnographic history of the Siraya, and the other, represented in my book, Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600-1800. This is a historical-anthropological analysis of how trade networks and commercial agriculture drew Chinese settlers to the Taiwan frontier, and how the late imperial Chinese state acted to mediate relations between settlers and aborigines, extract revenues, and further its strategic interests in the island.

My interest in Chinese frontier statecraft and the historical interaction of Han and non-Han cultures has led to work on the historical ethnography of the Siraya. Since the seventeenth century the Siraya have adapted to Taiwanese society through intermarriage and cultural transformation, but they have also retained a sense of a separate identity. I am writing a series of essays based on fieldwork and the ethnographic descriptions of the Siraya that survive from every century from the seventeenth to the twentieth.

I am currently researching demographic parameters of marriage strategies in Chinese society. Anthropologists have been puzzled by the discovery of a surprising degree of regional variation in the forms of marriage in early twentieth-century Taiwan and have offered a variety of hypotheses to explain this variation. I am challenging these explanations with research that documents how sharply differentiated regional patterns of disease affected sex-differential mortality, the marriage market, and marriage strategies.

Specializations

Historical anthropology, political economy, social organization, marriage and domestic groups, legal anthropology, demographic anthropology, Chinese culture and society, Taiwanese aboriginal culture and society.

Courses

Marriage, Mortality and Fertility; Chinese Family and Religion; Marriage, Gender, and Political Economy; China: Empire and Nationalities; Social Organization; Ethnographic Writing and Data Analysis

Selected Publications

2006a - Fertility and infant and early childhood mortality: some lessons on stopping behavior from Taiwanese and Dutch cases. John R. Shepherd, Jan Kok, & Hsieh Ying-hui. In Positive or Preventive? Reproduction in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1940, Chuang Ying-chang, Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf, eds., pp. 163-197. Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers.
2006b - Group Identity and Fertility: an evaluation of the role of religion and ethnicity in the Netherlands and Taiwan. John R. Shepherd, Pan Inghai, Jan Kok, Claudia Engel, Theo Engelen & Melissa Brown. In Positive or Preventive? Reproduction in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1940, Chuang Ying-chang, Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf, eds., pp. 121-161. Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers.
2004 - Some Demographic Characteristics of Chinese Immigrant Populations: Lessons for the Study of Taiwan's Population History. In Maritime China in Transition, 1750-1850, Wang Gungwu and Ng Chin-keong, eds., pp. 115-137. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
2003 - Rethinking Sinicization: Processes of Acculturation and Assimilation. In State, Market and Ethnic Groups Contextualized, Bien Chiang and Ho Ts'ui-p'ing, eds., pp. 133-150. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.
2001 - Smallpox and the Patten of Mortality in Late Nineteenth-Century Taiwan. In Asian Population History, Liu Ts'ui-jung, James Lee, et al., eds., pp. 270-291. Oxford University Press,
1999 - The Island Frontier of the Ch'ing, 1684-1780. Chapter 4 of Taiwan: A New History, Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., pp. 107-32. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
1996 - From Barbarians to Sinners: Collective Conversion Among Plains Aborigines in Qing Taiwan, 1859-1895. In Christianity in China, D.H. Bays, ed., pp. 120-137. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1995 - Marriage and Mandatory Abortion among the Seventheenth-century Siraya. American Ethnological Society Monographs.
1993 - Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600-1800. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1988 - Rethinking Tenancy: Explaining Spatial and Temporal Variation in Late Imperial and Republican China. Comparative Studies in Society and History 30(3):403-31.
1986 - Sinicized Siraya Worship of A-li-tsu. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 58(1):1-81.