Ê Đê

Total population
270,348 (1999 est.)
Regions with significant populations
Vietnam, Cambodia
Languages
E De, Vietnamese
Religion
Christianity

The E De (also Ê Đê, Rhade, or Rade) are an ethnic group of southern Vietnam (population 270,348 in 1999).

Language [link]

An E De longhouse

The E De language is a member of the Chamic group of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. It is related to the Cham language of central Vietnam and the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, Philippines and other Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand, Rapa Nui, Samoa, Guam, Fiji, etc.). They have a writing system developed on the basis of the Latin script in the 1920s.

A kind of bamboo bag, created by mythological character Y Rit and has a form of pơ lang flower's sepal

Kinship and Social Structure [link]

The E De practice matrilineal descent. Descent is traced through the female line, and family property is in the hands of and inherited from women. The basic kinship unit is the matrilineage; these are grouped into higher-level matrilineal sibs (matrisibs). The E De are further divided into two phratries. The women of a matrilineage and their spouses and children live together in a longhouse. The lineage holds corporate property such as paddy land, cattle, gongs, and jars; these are held by the senior female of the matrilineage. The lineage also engages in the farming of common lands and maintenance of the longhouse. The head of the longhouse itself is a man, with the position most commonly inherited by the spouse of the daughter or sister-in-law of the previous longhouse head.^[1]

Matrilineages and matrisibs are exogamous, with both sexual intercourse and marriage prohibited. The phratries also impose some restrictions on marriage. Couples violating these restrictions must sacrifice a buffalo, though violating phratry restrictions are generally not seen as being as serious, and require only the sacrifice of a pig. Residence is matrilocal.^[2]

E De villages were traditionally autonomous and governed by an oligarchy of leading families. Some villages became locally dominant, but none formed any larger political structures.^[3]

Literature [link]

Epic [link]

Epics (E De language: klei khan), such as Klei khan Y Dam San, H'Bia Mlin, Dam Kteh Mlan, Mdrong Dam, etc. are told by epic tellers (E De language: po khan) next to the fire, through the night.

Music [link]

Ede music is very deversifying and playing music is the way that Ede people communicate to the God (Ede language: yang) and to other people.

Musical instruments [link]

The Đinh vuốt, a vertical flute used by the E De people

• Gong: There are several sets of gongs used. The knah gong set is made up of six suspended gongs :knah, hlinang or knah hliang, mdu khơk or knah khơk, hluê khơk or mong, hluê hliang, hluê khơk điêt or k'khiêt, knah di, and the largest one is ching sar; as well as two bossed gongs: mđũ and ana (there is also h'gor drum). The others are: chinh k'ram, đinh tút. E De gong culture has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
• Flute (Ede language: đing): đing năm, ky pah, đing tak ta (or đing buốt klé), đing buốt tút, đing buốt trok, đing rinh, đing téc.
• String instrument: brố, goong.
• Others: chinh đing aráp,gông kram, đing pah, đing ktuk, đing pâng, kni.

Style of music [link]

• Kư- ứt: a kind of telling the epic accompanied with đing buốt trok.

• Ayray: a kind of love songs accompanied with đing năm.

Architecture [link]

A typical house of E De people is the longhouse made of bamboo and wood. The longhouse's length is measured by the number of collar beams (E De language: de). Once a girl living in the house gets married, the house is lengthened by one compartment, as the matrilocal aspect of E De marriage means that the husband will live in his wife's house. The orientation of building is North-South. The longhouse's space is divided into two parts: Gah part's area makes up 1/3- 2/3 the total area is considered as the living room and the other part Ok includes bedrooms. There are two doors: the front door is for men, the back door is for women and two stairs: male stair and female stair.

Longhouses can be 100 meters long and house from three to nine families. A traditional description of the size of the longhouse is: "The house is as long as the gong's echo".

Vietnam War [link]

During the Vietnam War, American and South Vietnamese military advisers feared that the Viet Cong would convert Rhade tribesman in the Darlac Province to their support. They instituted a program by which American Special Forces sought to train the Rhade in "village self-defense programs."^[4] The E De made up a portion of the United States' Montagnard allies, and after the war some fled to the United States, mainly residing in North Carolina.^[5]

Notable E De people [link]

• Y Điêng, writer and ethnologist
• Linh Nga Niê Kđăm, singer and musical researcher
• Y Moan, popular singer
• Will Eban skateboarder
• Gelly Long dancer and singer

Gallery [link]

• 

  E De long house

• 

  A stair

• 

  A decorated girder

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  A column with images of stars, crescent moon, and breasts

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  Images of tortoise, iguana, wine jar, tobacco pipe in a column

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  Bamboo wall and floor and a wood bench in the long house

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  A column with images of rhino horns, a hag head, and a ding nam.

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  A ding nam is hang on the wall

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  Jars of wine

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  Musical instrument Bro of Ede people

Customary law [link]

L. Sabatier has collected 236 articles. The highest number of articles is of marriage and family matter, followed by property ownership and relationship between the head of villages and villagers. The main principles are that communal nature and equality are under guarantee. Judges are called khoa phat kdi.

References [link]

Works cited [link]

• Kelly, Francis John (1989) [1973]. History of Special Forces in Vietnam, 1961-1971. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 90-23. https://www.history.army.mil/BOOKS/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm. 
• Lebar, Frank M.; Gerald C. Hickey, John K. Musgrave (1964). Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia. New Haven, Connecticut: Human Relations Area Files Press. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-25414. 

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: E De people

• Ede People in Vietnam
• Ethnologue page
• The Ede, The Peoples of the World Foundation. Page about the E De in the United States

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