本研究企圓透過對新竹客家村落之閹雞比賽的詮釋，說明「村落」層次的 地方社群的社會過程在整個社會結構裡的存在屬性，一個實存論的問題。在這 個過程裡，身體成為自然性與社會性張力的協調中，第一個需要面對的實境。它帶著本能驅力的野性，又必須生存於社會組織裡。這些客家村落的居民透 過雞的養殖、閹雞、比賽到獻祭的週而復始過程，企圓詮釋自然、自我與他者 的關係，並進而達到一種社群的相互理解——從自己的身體開始，實踐社會過 程，進行文化建構。這樣的論述彰顯出生活社群之有限度的範疇和具體性的溝通方式的必要。

Through the interpretation of the castrated cock contest in a Hakka village in Northern Taiwan, this paper explores the ontology of the social process of local community in social structure. In this process, the physical body is the first realm in which the tension between the natural and the social plays out. The body carries our wild nature of instinct while living in the social environment一a fundamental contradiction for human beings that needs to be resolved. In raising and castrating the cocks, participating in the cock contest, and offering the cock to god as sacrifice, the Hakka villagers practice a hermeneutic circle to interpret the relations between nature, the self, and the other. With the body as the indispensable medium, culture is constructed through the community members’ mutual “understanding” with each other. In conclusion, I argue that small scale and embodied communication is central to the lived experience of the community.