**4. Results and Discussion**

#### *4.1. Cooperation under the Gaga: Indigenous Knowledge and Social Regulations*

Indigenous peoples' land ethics toward the environment and natural resources as well as their traditional knowledge and competence such as ecological wisdom are based on their life experiences on food collection, fishing and hunting, and farming. The important characteristics of life cover the psychological demand of tribal people's interaction and sharing of collective work, work exchange, as well as food and information sharing with time and space arrangements of social life in order to maintain their material and social lives. The tribes are small-scale communities based on mutualism. They cultivate and hunt in the spacious mountain valleys and rivers. The mountain areas are their common properties and offer a form of man-land connection. Indigenous peoples' land development and management are based on their tribes with rights and public ownership of subjectivity. The villages possess land ownership, whereas individual are entitled to land use.

Endogenous actions from Tayal IK illustrate dynamic, cumulative, living social capital that could enhance the ability of the tribal society to cope with environmental change [60]. Tayal people have their own gaga (social regulations and cultures) with the functions of social control and mutualism (work and sharing together). The indigenous peoples have an intimate connection to the land. Different clans and ethnical groups share their cultures, languages, living models, and life development in the tribe, yet they attack together and defend against external invasion. During the seasons of cultivation, harvest, and hunting, they help each other and communalize into a solid tribal society (community with a common destiny). The tribes in the Wulai area combine different clans that cooperate with each other. Traditional Tayal social organizations are divided into clan, hunting, ancestral worship, sacrifice, mutual groups, and elders' meetings, with members of them often overlapping. The gaga of IK not only connect the Tayal people, but also are the keys for a modern indigenous society to reconstruct traditional values and spur endogenous actions for tribal resilience.

Indigenous peoples in Taiwan follow a traditional social organization based mainly on the clan system, especially the Tayal people who share resources and manage land by obeying the gaga of IK. The Qutux Niqan of IK was proposed from Tayal people. A member of the Fushan tribe said, "We called out to our relatives to deliver the food for the Wulai tribe (front-stage), and they carried what we needed during the disaster." Tribes' elders were also the chiefs of village. They were commanders who assigned various disaster relief affairs with their local knowledge. For example, because of the Tayal concept of hunting space, the elders and hunters have mastered the characteristics of the river basin and thus helped local people in how to walk along the river back to tribes, however, this is more difficult than usual without IK. "I have walked along the Nanshi River with the elders when I was a little boy. That is the collective memory of IK in my Fushan tribe (Respondent D)." Thus, Tayal people have a set of abilities in how to adapt themselves in the physical environment (e.g., finding the source of river water) and to gather and hunt successfully. In SES, IK provides the needed support or antecedent basis for the mechanism of long-term interaction with mountains and forests as well as inter-ethnic relations. That is why experienced hunters and elders are better equipped to organize different groups and collect food in the mountain, especially during a disaster.

During the food shortage transition period after the typhoon disaster, Tayal people used alternative nature routes for carrying supplies and food back to their tribes on foot. They walked along the Nanshi River basin and supplied the food from Xindian District of New Taipei City to the Wulai tribe and then transported it further to the Lahaw and Fushan tribes. Tayal people also responded to shortage conditions by adjusting their lives back to hunting, harvesting different species, and fishing with harpoons. "When we hunt after a typhoon disaster, the Tayal hunter taught us the rituals of the mountain and of ancestor worship, telling us the importance of revering, respecting, and thanking the mountains for our lives (Respondent F)." The indigenous people undertook social-ecological resilience to overcome seasonal variability and climate changes through processing the harvests and

using the resources provided within IK [61]. After the typhoon (Soudelor), Tayal people from different tribes gathered together and cooperated through the gaga belonging to IK. In this situation, IK is the cause of endogenous action whilst sharing groups (Qutux Niqan) and with other social organizations to strengthen the endogenous actions and form a set of strategies for sustainable use of natural resources [62] and disaster risk reduction benefit from the accumulation of IK.
