社群（community)是一文化建構的現象，所指涉的可以是地域定著的 (territory-bound)社會群體，也可以是去疆域化的（de-territorialized)或再地域 化的（re-territorialized)人群聯繫。筆者藉白沙屯媽祖進香的例子，試圓呈現媽 祖做為宗教的象徵，如何透過進香活動的共同經驗與情感凝聚信徒的認同與歸 屬感，從而建構不同指涉的社群。筆者採用0lwig(2002)提出的「歸屬感的共享 場域」（shared fields of belonging)來探討社群的問題，發現以白沙屯媽祖為認同 歸屬的社群，具有四種不同的指涉內容：(-)地域的社群，指傳統祭祀範圍內的居 民團體，成員間具有緊密的面對接觸關係；㈡家鄉的社群，指透過宗教、親屬與 資產等關係將移民聯繫於家鄉人群，使社群的認同可以掙脫地域群體的限制；㈢ 宗教的社群，指所有白沙屯媽祖的信徒，包含來自各地的外地人，由於共同的進 香體驗與情感而聲稱屬於白沙屯，呈現媽祖信仰的普世性價值；㈣想像的社群， 指藉由與進香有關的影片與網路溝通，提供信徒共同想像的資源，形成媽祖信 仰文化的想像社群。
社群認同之形成基於差異；而共同的宗教象徵不必定有相同的內涵或意義詮 釋。因此所謂的共同，不是本質上的同一，而只是象徵形式的類同。由白沙屯的 四類社群來看，它們都以白沙屯媽祖為認同的象徵，其成員的歸屬也有許多重 疊，但卻各有不同的內涵。筆者以「家族的類似性」說明形成這些不同層次、交 錯重疊的社群之理由，以及這些不同指涉的社群如何轉換的邏輯。依據「家族類 似性」的類比邏輯，只要特定的時空條件允許，某種類似性就能成為某一類的社 群之基礎，其間行動者擁有選擇空間，也讓社群的邊界呈現模糊、浮動的樣態。

”Community” is a cultural construction； it can refer to a social entity bounded to a territory； it can also refer to any kind of de-territorialized or re-territorialized human affiliations. Olwig (2002) has proposed to approach community by examining different social fields of the human affiliation that can provide people with a sense of shared belonging. Studying the pilgrim’s group from Baishatun, located on the northwestern coast of Taiwan, I regard the goddess Mazu as a religious symbol that has the force to congregate all believers to participate in the religious journey. Because of the common voyaging experience and religious sentiments, pilgrims from different origins assert a sense of belonging to this Mazu cult and also claim a sort of identity. However, this identity has been constructed in diverse situations, in which some distinctions can be made between “we-group” and “they-group” Thus, four kinds of communities can be discerned. (1)The territory-bound community refers to the cult area where the goddess’s temple is centered. (2)The homeland community associates the emigrants with the residents under a notion of homeland based on the relationships of kinship, property, and religious activity. (3)The religious community includes all Mazu believers who share the common experience and the religious sentiment of the pilgrimage journey. (4)The imagined community can be formed by way of films of the pilgrimage and the communication via internet discussion boards, in which the common sentiment and experience of the pilgrimage journey is always asserted.
A religious symbol held in common does not necessarily contain the same connotation for everyone, because “communality” does not mean uniformity in essence, but the similarity of the symbolic form. Identifying with the goddess Mazuin Baishatun, people with diverse religious concepts and ritual practices claim a sense of belonging and construct different kinds of communities focused on common residence, homeland, pilgrimage and belief in Mazu. Overlapping affiliations to different communities are possible. This phenomenon can be explained by the concept of family resemblance, whose logic of analogy allows people without many similarities to connect to the community base under certain circumstances. In this way, there exists a large space for the agent’s active selection. Owing to the multiple possibilities for human affiliation to form a community, the boundary of these communities is always shifting from one situation to another.