奧利華 副教授
Assoc. Prof. Oliver STREITER

In this paper we approach the paradigmatic changes in the inscriptions of Taiwan’s tombstones not as phenomenon that can be traced on maps and timelines, but as phenomena that occurred in the history of individual families. For this purpose, tombstones are connected into networks of family relations, created through references from different tombstones to a common set of person. Using the edges of these tombstone networks in a chronological order, we obtain a workable data structure to follow transformations in a family line. The unexpected problems we encoutered with this research approach, i.e. the only regional references to mourners by names and the reduction of workable data with each processing step are discussed and possible solutions are suggested.