Pop:
25,000
Origin:
China
Area:
Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dac Lac
Economy:
livestock, forest products
Belief system:
animism
Cultural characteristics:
The polytheistic Ede live communally in beamless boat-shaped longhouses on
stilts. About one-third of these homes, which often accommodate large extended
families, are reserved for communal use, with the rest partitioned into smaller
sections to give some privacy to married couples. Speaking of which, like the
Jarai, the Ede girls must propose to the men and after marriage the couple
resides with the wife's family and bears the mother's name. Inheritance is also
the preserve of women, in particular the youngest daughter of the family. Ede
women generally wear colourfully embroidered vests with copper and silver
jewellery.
Production activities: The Ede’s principal food crop is rice,
cultivated on swidden fields which, after a period of time, after left fallow
before being exploited anew (cleared and burned). Each period of exploitation
of a field varied between 5 and 8 years, based on the quality of the soil. Crop
rotation and intercropping is practiced and there is only one wet rice harvest
per year. Wet rice fields are found only among the Bih near Lac Lake.
The
most numerous animals and poultry raised on the family farm are pigs,
buffaloes, and chickens, but they are mostly used when there are ritual
sacrifices to perform. The most widespread family handicrafts are the plaiting of
household objects out of bamboo, the cultivation of cotton in order to weave
cloths with the aid of looms similar to those found in Indonesia. Pottery and
blacksmithing are not well-developed among the Ede. Barter was the most spread
marketing practice in the former time.
Diet:
The Ede eat rice cooked in clay pots or in large-sized metal pots. Ede food
includes a spicy salt, game meat, bamboo shoots, vegetables and root crops
abstained from hunting and gathering activities. Ruou can, fermented alcohol consumed
using a bamboo drinking tube or straw, is stored and served in large earthen
jars. Steamed sticky rice is reversed for ritual occasions. Men and women chew
betel nut.
Clothing:
Women wear a long cloth wrapper or sarong which reaches to the toes; their
torso may remain unclothed or they may wear a short pullover vest. Men wear the
loin cloth and a vest of the same style. When they are cold, men and wears wrap
themselves in blankets. Ede jewelry includes glass beaded necklaces, rings made
of copper or nickel that are worn around the neck, wrists, and ankles. Men are
women alike have their teeth filed, blacken their teeth, and prefer distended
earlobes. Head coverings include the turban and the conical hat.
Housing:
The Ede primarily live in Dac Lac province, the south of Gia Lai province, and
the west of Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa provinces. The traditional Ede house is a
construction whose length is reminiscent of the shape of a boat which is cut
lengthwise or across giving it a shape of a reversed trapezoid. The structure
rests on two rows of columns and not on the ground. The interior space is
divided into two parts along the length. The first section is called Gah; it is
both the reception area of the large matrilineal extended family. The other
part, ok, is divided into many small rooms, each of which is reserved for a
couple in the extended family.
Transportation:
The plaited carrying basket with two shoulder straps remains the principal way
for the Ede to carry their goods. In the Krong Buk region, the footed basket is
the most widely used, but not all that popular nowadays.
Social organization:
The Ede family is matrilineal: marriage is matrilocal, the children carry the
name of the mother’s family, and the youngest daughter is the inheritor. Ede society
is regulated by customary laws based on the matriarchal system. The community
is divided into two lineages in order to facilitate marriage exchanges. The
village is called buon and constitutes a unique kind of habitat. The
inhabitants of the buon can belong to many branches of the two lineages, but
there is also a nuclear branch. The head of village is the po pom ea or the
master of the place of water. He directs, in the name of his wife, the affairs
of the community.
Marriage:
It is the women who take the initiative in matrimonial relations. She chooses
the intermediary in order to ask for a young man in marriage, and once the
couple marries, they live with the wife’s family. If one of the couple dies,
the family of the deceased’s lineage must replace the spouse according to the
chue nue (continuing the line) custom so that the surviving spouse is not
alone. It also ensures that the thread of love tied between the two lineages,
Nie and Mlo, do not rupture-in conformity to the teachings of the ancestors.
Funerals:
The chue nue must be observed for each death. In the case of the death of old
age or sickness, the funerals are organized at the home before the burial at
the cemetery. In the past, if the people of one lineage died on dates near to
those of the death of the same lineage, the deceased would be buried in the
same grave. Consider that the other world is a reincarnation of the present
world, the Ede share the deceased’s goods and dispose of them in the funerary
structure. From the time that the funerary house is made, the celebration of
the abandonment of the tomb takes place to put an end to the cares to the soul
of the deceased and to his tomb.
New house:
The construction of a new h is of interest to the entire village. Villagers
help bringing material (wood, bamboo, straw) or help with manual labor in a
system of exchanging labor (called H’rim Zit). The inauguration of the new
house will take place when one has finished planting a row of trees along the
wall. However, one can move well in advances of this date if the condition is
not organized for the inauguration. Women, led by a khoa sang – the female head
of the matrilineal family are the first ones authorized on walk on the new
floor. They carry with them water and a fire in order to give coolness and heat
to the new house. It is an Ede way to wish happiness on the members of the new
house.
Festivals:
Festivals are celebrated in the course of the last month of the lunar year,
after the harvest time. After the festival of the new rice, h’ma ngat, it is
the festival mnam thun, in honor of an abundant crop. It is the largest of the
year, with wealthy people killing a buffalo or an ox as an offering, and others
offering a pig or poultry. The spiritthe most important is Ae Die and Ae Du,
the Creator, followed by the spirit of rice, yang mdie, and others. The Ede are
animists. The agricultural spirit is the good spirits, while thunder,
lightning, whirlwinds, tempests, and floods are the bad spirits. There are
rituals that follow the course of a person’s life, rites that ask for happiness
and health. The more rites there are, and especially those with the sacrifice
of many buffaloes and oxen and great quantities of jars (for the fermentation
of alcohol), the more the organizer are held in esteem by the villagers.
Calendar:
The traditional agricultural calendar is fixed to the evolution of the moon.
The 12-month year is divided into 9 periods corresponding to the 9 steps of
agricultural work: clearing the fields, burning the vegetation, turning over the
soil, wedding…each month is comprised of 30 days.
Education:
Apprenticeship to a trade or craft and the dissemination, and oral
transmission. Ede writing based on Latin script made its appearance in 1923.
Artistic activities:
The khan is a long epic poem that one recounts in vivid exclamations and
illustrates with gestures. There are alternating songs, riddles, genealogical
histories…Ede music is celebrated by the ensemble of 6 flat gongs, 3 gongs with
projections, a gong for rhythm, and a drum. The gongs would never be absent
from a festival or a cultural activity. Aside from the gongs, there are bamboo
instruments and calabashes resembling those of other ethnic groups in the Tay
Nguyen region, though they are distinctively Ede.
Entertainment:
Children like spinning top, kite flying, and flute playing. Stilt-walking is
enjoyed by many. Hide and seek and lance or javelin throwing at a target are
also currently enjoyed.
This
article written by Lanh Nguyen from Travel Agency in Vietnam
For
original article, please visit:
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