過去對於閩台漢人社會的民族誌硏究，已有兩種重要的社會構成原則被詳加討論過， 其一是被視爲親屬血緣群體的地域化宗族分支模式，其二是被視爲地緣群體的祭祀圈模 式，兩者似乎是在結構上平行而沒有關聯的現象。然而，從土著的觀點和象徵實踐來看， 兩種結構原則在這兩類現象當中都是並存而且以各種方式結合、交互運用的。不同於過 去硏究者所採取的角度，本文將宗族的分支現象解讀爲透過祖先崇拜的象徵實踐所形成 的共祀群，而祭祀圈、信仰圈或角頭廟則是崇拜各種地方神明的共祀群。因此應當將這 些現象放在一起進一步探討的問題是，漢人社會中各種共祀群與不同結構原則之間的關 係。要處理這個問題，只能從地方性的、特定的象徵實踐脈絡中來分析。本文運用惠安 和鹿港兩地的田野資料，提出一種過去幾乎未曾被注意到的中介性象徵活動，稱之爲房 頭神崇拜，可以淸楚的說明：㈠宗族分支的地域觀念在祖先崇拜和房頭神崇拜之間的象 徵轉換；（二)村落共同體與宗族分支透過房頭神與村廟的象徵實踐如何構連起來；㈢房頭 神隨著移民來台後成爲宗族分支觀念與地緣群體意識之間的過渡性象徵機制。

This paper is the first documentation that discusses the structural meanings of the worship of lineage segment gods in Huian in Fujian and Lugang in Taiwan. Description and analysis focuses on three central ethnographic findings. First, shifting senses of locality occur in lineage segment ancestor worship and god worship. Second, ritual practice links lineage segment gods with village temple ritual and thereby to the village as a whole. Third, these localized lineage gods served as the symbolic means whereby lineage segment and local group ideology were mediated during immigration to Taiwan. Thus, this paper indeed finds that lineage segments are organized around lineage ancestor worship, while ritual spheres, belief spheres, and neighborhood temples are organized around the worship of local gods. The extent ethnographic literature on Han society in Fujian and Taiwan already contains an extensive literature relevant to the worship of lineage ancestors and local gods. But problematically, that literature treats these two sides of community life as if they were mutually exclusive. Local knowledge and ritual practice in Huian in Fujian and Lugang in Taiwan suggest, however, that the worship of lineage ancestors and local gods co-occur, interlock, and compliment one another. The paper’s conclusion is that treating the two sides of community life as but two parts to a more inclusive whole recovers their underlying unity. The key to recovering that underlying unity is to understand how each part has a distinctive, but related, sense of locality and associated ritual acts.