Sentinels of the Sea: Human–Bird Entanglements on the Isle of Humans

The Tao (Indigenous people of Pongso no Tao, Orchid Island, Taiwan) have inhabited the maritime region between Taiwan and the Philippines, and are related to the Ivatan people of the Batanes Islands. They are long aware of the entanglements that link humans (Tao) to the fish, birds, and other living beings of the seas. Since coming under state administration with Taiwan since 1903, under the rule of both imperial Japan and the Republic of China, they have faced many new challenges in a regime that we may call the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene manifests itself through human practices of tourism, militarism, conservation, and so on that transform human lifestyles and the milieu that has long nourished animal life. The Tao have an intimate relationship with birds, including the Lanyu Scops Owl and the Brown Booby, that allows them to act as sentinels on behalf of this assemblage of lives.