對分布於東南亞、大洋洲地區的南島語族而言，「路徑」（path, pathway）是重要的歷史意識象徵與社會秩序隱喻。本文比較密克羅尼西亞雅浦以及東臺灣蘭嶼兩個南島語族社會的「村落路徑」（village path[s]）。雅浦以持久的階序制度，與關於階序的各種指涉符號聞名。蘭嶼則以平權社會特性，以及象徵著夫妻生命歷程的家屋成長週期而著稱。本文以「村落路徑」為核心，對比兩個社會中作為地景的路徑、動詞化的路徑（pathing），以及與pathing相關的象徵舉措（signifying practice[s]）。一方面為南島語族研究常見的「階序／平權」社會型態分類提供不同的切入點，另一方面也藉由對比兩個性質不同的社會之「路徑」，探討agencing（動作者在動作之中反身性地自我轉變之潛力），勞動、時間性、生命形式，以及人類學知識的特性。

The idea of “path” or “pathways” is immensely critical to the people of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Oceania. It symbolizes indigenous historical consciousness, also figures as a metaphor of social ordering. My paper compares “village path[s]” between two Austronesian-speaking groups: the Yapese in Micronesia, and the Yami (Tao) off Eastern Taiwan. The Yapese culture is known for the robust form and various registers of hierarchy. The Yami (Tao) culture is known for its egalitarian features, embodied in the life course of the growing and dying house, which is analogized as the life-history of the founding/inhabiting couple. The concepts surrounding “path” therefore demonstrate a sharp contrast between the two cultures. I examine how “village path” signifies the social order in Yap and Yami in different ways, and then explicate path as landscape, as pathing/agencing, and as signifying practice[s]. I apply path/pathing as a new pathway to reconsider hierarchy/equality in the Austronesian-speaking peoples. I further suggest that contrasting different cultures’ concepts of “path/pathing” opens a route to investigate agencing (“the transformative and reflexive potential of ‘doing undergoing”), labor, temporality, forms of life, and the opens new possibilititesfor comparative studies, which advances anthropological knowledge.