Mambai
The Mambai ( Mambae , Manbae ) are the second largest ethnic group in East Timor after the Tetum . Originally they were called Marine by the Portuguese . Maupe or Mau Bere is a common male given name among the Mambai.
Settlement area
The Mambai live from the interior of the municipality of Dili to the south coast of the country, especially in the municipalities of Ainaro and Manufahi . Its main centers are Ermera , Aileu , Remexio , Turiscai , Maubisse , Ainaro and Same . The Mambai are one of the main groups among the Timorese exile in Australia .
Culture
The Mambai language is a central Malayo-Polynesian language of the Timor branch . With 195,778 speakers, it is the second most common mother tongue in East Timor.
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The traditional round huts of the Mambai, which are still widespread today, are striking compared to the neighboring ethnic groups. Most of the Mambai live in small hamlets where rice, maize and cassava are grown. The houses in the hamlets are divided into fada , the residents of which are closely related to each other. These belong to one of the numerous clans ( Lisa ) who share a common holy house ( Fad lisa ). Several clans are grouped together to form a larger cult group, the Lis tu , which have a common ancestral home, the house of origin Fada ni fun . Several of these parent houses can stand together on a hill. They then stand in a circle around a stone altar with a three-ended ai to'os . The relationship between the trunk and its branches is equated with father and mother ( Aman nor Inan ) to their children ( Anan ). Men remain within their tribe ( patrilineal ), but only marry women from outside ( exogamous ), so that all relatives can relate to a male lineage. People meet regularly at their place of origin ( fun ).
Each parent company is in turn derived from two parent lines. These two ancestors are called the tribe or male house ( Umaen fun ) and the female house ( Nai fun ). They are also called "mother and father water buffalo " ( Arabau inan nor arabau aman ). The male line represents the earliest ancestor, the female the descending ancestor. Together they form "those who support the rock" or "those who hold the tree". Those lines that are derived from female descendants are called "new men" ( Maen heua ), for example the houses of the daughter's husband or sister's child. If a man wants to marry a woman from an unrelated household , he must first ritually ask her Umaen fun's permission.
Hiut Lel, Maubisse
Stone altar by Hiut Lel
Like the other ethnic groups of East Timor, the Mambai are today largely followers of the Catholic faith. Nevertheless, traces of the animistic , traditional religion can still be found in Christian rites today. There are some parallels, especially with the rites of the neighboring Kemak . In Mambai and Kemak, burial ceremonies are called black rituals . Second burials (Mambai: Maet-keon ), in which the bones of the deceased are dug up again, cleaned and reburied , were also common in the past with the Mambai, but seem to no longer occur today.
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In the culture of the Mambai, the cult around the flag of Portugal was of central importance during the colonial period . When the Portuguese subjugated the Timorese, they gave the Liurais (small Timorese kings) as vassals the Portuguese flag, which in the eyes of the Timorese, just like the flagpole, became sacred objects, which legitimized the rule of the Portuguese and the Liurais loyal to them . According to their original myth, the world order is created by two brothers. The elder brother, from whom the peoples of Timor are descended, has ritual power over the cosmos. The younger brother has power over the social order. The non-Timorese peoples descend from this, in this case the Portuguese. The myth tells of the loss, search and recovery of a lost, sacred object, namely the Portuguese flag. This sacred meaning of the flag created some problems when the flag of Portugal was changed in 1910 when it changed from monarchy to republic. (see also: Rebellion of Manufahi )
An important cultural center of all Mambai is Hiut Lel on the Fleixa Pass in Aituto .
Importance in politics
Four of the eight candidates in the 2007 presidential election were Mambai:
- Francisco Xavier do Amaral , ASDT .
- Fernando de Araújo , PD .
- Lúcia Lobato , PSD .
- Manuel Tilman , KOTA .
literature
- Elizabeth Gilbert Traube: Ritual exchange among the Mambai of East Timor: gifts of life and death , Harvard University Press, 1977.
- Elizabeth Gilbert Traube: Affines and the Dead: Mambai Rituals of Alliance , Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Deel 136, 1st Afl., ANTHROPOLOGICA XXII (1980), pp. 90-115
- Elizabeth Gilbert Traube: Cosmology and Social Life: ritual exchange among the Mambai of East Timor , University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Andrew McWilliam, Elizabeth G. Traube: Land and Life in Timor-Leste: Ethnographic Essays , p. 119, Canberra 2011.
- ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística : Results of the 2015 census , accessed on November 23, 2016.
- ^ Tony Wheeler, East Timor , Lonely Planet, 2004, p. 93.
- ^ A b Clifford Sather and James J. Fox (eds): Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography , ANU E Press, 2006, chapter 7.
- ^ Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University - East Timor People and Culture
- ↑ History of Timor - Technical University of Lisbon ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 824 kB)
- ↑ Monika Schlicher: Portugal in East Timor. A critical examination of the Portuguese colonial history in East Timor from 1850 to 1912 . Abera, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-931567-08-7 , ( Abera Network Asia-Pacific 4), (also: Heidelberg, Univ., Diss., 1994).
- ↑ photo of the Shrine of Fleixa , accessed on 7 December 2018th
- ^ The Living Heritage of Communities in Timor-Leste , p. 65, accessed December 7, 2018.
