地方與全球化的關係是什麼？地方能否抗拒資本的流動？本文藉由提出 與經驗性檢驗「大型地方性」的概念，嘗試以新的角度來理解漢人民間信仰 大型區域性聯庄活動在當代社會裏的意義與位置。新概念的提出一方面有助 於對祭祀圏與信仰圏宗教實踐背後的認知與情感基礎進行探討，一方面也希 望藉著對與現代性概念形成對比的地方性概念的考察，可以更深入掌握當代 民族國家和全球化歴程下的地方宗教現象。而已為學界多所研究的西港刈 香，則在新概念的輔助下，有助於達成本文概念建構與理論分析上的旨趣。 西港刈香起源於人們對曾文溪流域水患與瘟疫的恐慌，而產生了大範圍的集 體性聯盟，後來地方土地資源變遷（新的墾殖地與新聚落的出現）歴程中產 生的聚落衝突，不但沒有解構集體聯盟，出於「單一地方」對於「大型的地 方性」更迫切的需要（象徵性的「真確化」的需求），反而讓這個集體性工 程的規模愈來愈宏偉，大型地方性的內在結構也愈趨完備。而當「大型的地 方性」進入現代國家，它開始有更多與外界的協商與拉扯，西港刈香由非常 實際的多社區間強烈的「真確化」之追求，扣連到現代民族國家底下的歴史 感（尋找與建立靜態或動態性的文化遺產），國家將其納入到現代國家動員 機制中，現代商業活動也將流動性的資本引入傳統文化活動。在多方面的承 接點上，原僅是國家邊陲的農業區塊，處在一個新的既邊陲又核心的位置。 本文最後，就「地方性」、「大型的地方性」、和「進香中心」三者間進行 對比，並分別討論其各自與現代國家或全球資本主義間的關係。

What is the relationship between locality and globalization? Can locales resist the flow of capital? By using the concept “locality at large”, this paper tries to examine these issues empirically, and tries to shed light on the “very big” inter-village communal festivals within the Han Chinese folk religion within the modern global arena.
Under the nationalist situation and global economy, people tend to think more about the security of their particular place in the world. Places then are the “contested terrain of competing definitions”. Nevertheless, to discuss the contemporary place, we still need to look back at our traditional place. This paper tries to explore the issue of traditional place through a new lens. The Saikang Koah-hiu procession in Southern Taiwan is a very large local festival which involves more than ninety palanquins and troupes. It originated from the terror of floods and plagues in the Tsengwen river area; thus a large inter-village communal ritual cooperation began to emerge. Even the change of regional land measurements and boundary disputes haven’t disrupted this cooperation. Furthermore, historically, the function of conferring a newly emerging village’s authenticity through building up a “large communal locality” has become crucially important. Once every three years, the Saikang Koah-hiu takes place within a large festival combining several other rituals, including a Daoist “Lord offering” ritual, a ceremony that emulates etiquette within imperial yamens (higher level government offices), a Boat-burning ritual, and a three-day inter-communitarian territorial procession. During the period of about one week, it is believed that the Jade Emperor sends three of the Gods of Pestilence (among twelve) to Saikang to control pestilence and recover social justice. This festival has continued to be held in this area for more than 200 years. We offer a model, “Ecology of Authentification”，which can explain how a village accomplishes its village production and reproduction through not only political and economic institutions, but also through “traditional institutions”. This model of “Ecology of Authentification” explains how, under each specific natural and social ecology, a village can attain authenticity through a process of ritual confirmation and public demonstration. The mechanism of the “large locality’s ” conferring function is the special yet typical lesson we learn from the Saikang case. In particular, we offer several parallel concepts to substantiate our analyses: authentification of magic power vs. authentification of the reciprocal side; and master authentification vs. sub- authentification. When this “large locality” enters into the modern national state, there are a lot of confrontations and negotiations. This “large locality”, with its original function of conferring authentification, now plays the role of static and dynamic cultural heritage for the nation-state; and also the possible role of accumulating capital for global capitalists. Within these interstices, the formerly very marginal agricultural region Saikang, re-enters as a nexus between the core and the periphery. Finally, we make a comparison between locality, large locality and pilgrimage center, and discuss of how traditional ways of reproducing locality can be relevant to modern nationalist institutions and the global economic system.