六堆客家閹雞技術之探究

「閹雞」是屬於老一輩客家居民的共同回憶，也屬於祭祀文化的一部份。在傳統客家生活中，公雞如果沒有依照雞隻品種飼養到4-8週適齡時，經閹雞師傅進行閹割手術成為閹雞來飼養，那麼在客家敬神祈福、慎終追遠的祭拜儀式上，就沒有足以凸顯宗教意涵及客家人勤儉耐勞精神的象徵，因此，閹雞在客家祭把供桌上佔有一席重要之位。早期的農村社會，閹割技術是一項古老不外傳的獨門技藝，一般外人是無法窺其堂奧。目前全臺仍在執業閹雞師傅，不到二百人。政府唯恐人才斷層，於民國八、九十年代，曾出資協助養雞團體辦理閹雞技術人才訓練班，培育技術人才，期能保留這項產業技術。本研究旨在透過質性研究的參與式觀察與半結構式訪談，從中掀開閹割技術的神秘面紗，一方面找出許多後進者在執行上需要學習的盲點，同時也找出閹雞工具的進步與創新，探究閹雞後的照護；另一方面找出造成閹雞師傅人才與技術斷層的原因，評估閹雞產業發展的可行性。之後，以一個簡單的實驗，瞭解整個閹割手術過程，及閹雞師傅處理的手法，試圖提出對實施閹割手術後的雞隻照護最具實質幫助的環節。最後，以研究者所觀察之社會現象，對閹雞這行業提供一些建言，期能在將來面臨動保團體及政府法令的限制之下，閹雞師傅不致因此失業，而使臺灣傳統閹雞文化失傳。

關鍵字

閹雞；閹割技術；祭祀文化

並列摘要

Capon is part of the Hakka ritual culture which is belonging to the common memories for the older generation of Hakka people. Cockerels are raised to 4-8 weeks, and then the surgery of caponization is conducted. The capon in Hakka worship to pray, worship ceremony of reverence for his ancestors, which can highlight the Hakka stamina religious meaning in terms of spirit of diligence and hard-working. Therefore, capon worship plays an important role in the Hakka ritual culture. The surgical caponization technique can only be pass on to relatives in early rural Hakka society. The practicing capon masters were less than 200 people now. Therefore, the government held a capon training course hoping to preserve the caponization technique in 1990s. The purpose of this study is to investigate the surgical caponization technique in qualitative method by observation and semi-structured interviews. Additionally, this study revealed the surgical caponization technique in more details in order to make a progress and innovation for the technology. Moreover, experiments for the cockerel care after surgery capon were carried out. Furthermore, in order to examine the feasibility of capon industry, this study also assessed the capon chefs decreasing and capon technique disappearing. Some suggestions regarding to the development of caponization technique and capon industry were also provided.