桃園臺地在桃園大圳未興築前，是一個缺水相當嚴重的地區，相關水利祭祀活動相對少見，目前桃園縣內只有社子溪「八本簿」三界節祭典仍保留祭祀開圳者的祭典儀式。這個現象緣於此地特有的歷史經驗與記憶，並透過祭典儀式，自清代以來展演至今，成為當地人民生活的一部分。此祭典除保留水利灌溉的特殊意涵外，也顯現了早期因水利灌溉而衍生的社群互動關係。本文發現水圳興修管理所形成的互動網絡以及衍生的祭祀活動，使原來分立的溪南、溪北兩地逐漸整合 ；這個整合的儀式社群仍有其邊界，包括新屋西北、西南兩區未加入輪值區，另外成立六本簿等。顯示一方面水利施設作為社會空間有其獨特的本質經驗，一方面也受到其他因素如墾業、族群、國家權力的影響，因此水利空間必須落實到整體社會歷史脈絡中進行觀察，才能把握水利社會地域性特質以及地域社會的水利空間特質。本文以桃園臺地傳統水圳為例，考察在村落歷史發展過程中由水利面向所顯現出來的族群重層關係；嘗試指出（新屋）社子溪流域的社群（族群），通過水圳興築及其相關祭祀活動的再現，不斷劃定社群關係與地域範圍。

The Taoyuan terrace was a very dry region before the building of the Taoyuan Great Dam, but the sacrificial activities related to irrigation were relatively rare. The only sacrificial ritual to the dam founders was in Shezi Stream Basin as in babenbu Opera, a kind of Peace Opera popular in Taoyuan. Its close relation with irrigation reveals local people’s collective historical memory of the irrigation, and their interactive relationships derived from water control in early days.This essay shows that the interactive networks and the babenbu sacrificial activities arising from the Sanqi Dam construction and management extended beyond the south dam and villages south to the river, to include both south and north villages on both sides of the river. However those in the nor thwest and southwest not included in the babenbu sacri fice formed another sacrificial circle. It shows that the irrigation facility as a social space has its own nature and experiences. Meanwhile it is influenced by other social factors such as cultivation, ethnicity, and state power.Therefore, only when the irrigation space is viewed in an integral socialhistorical context, can we grasp the territoriality of an irrigation society and the hydraulic spatiality of a territorial society. This essay investigates,by the case of a traditional water dam in Taoyuan terrace, the multi-layered social relationships through the lens of irrigation in the context of village development. This essay attempts to point out that the social groups (ethnic groups) in Taoyuan constantly define the ethnic relations and territorial boundaries through the representation of dam construction and related rituals.