caa a22 4500 386312893 CHVBK 20201216093912.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198810 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0010417500015486 doi S0010417500015486 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0010417500015486 Sangren P. Steven Cornell University History and the Rhetoric of Legitimacy: The Ma Tsu Cult of Taiwan [Elektronische Daten] [P. Steven Sangren] Worshippers of the goddess Ma Tsu constitute Taiwan's most encompassing ritual community. The cult's close association with Taiwanese history and cultural identity is well known to Sinological anthropologists. Every year pilgrimage groups (usually organized by local territorial cults) converge on cult centers at Pei-kang, Hsin-kang, Chang-hua, Lu-kang, T'u-ch'eng, and Tainan, among others (see Figure 1). These centers compete actively for cult supremacy, and the arguments invoked in this rivalry are mainly of an historical nature. The question I explore here is, Why is history so important in establishing the authenticity and charisma of this goddess? Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1988 Comparative Studies in Society and History Cambridge University Press 30/4(1988-10), 674-697 0010-4175 30:4<674 1988 30 CSS https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500015486 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500015486 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Sangren P. Steven Cornell University NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Comparative Studies in Society and History Cambridge University Press 30/4(1988-10), 674-697 0010-4175 30:4<674 1988 30 CSS