Xơ-đăng
Denomination: Xơ-đăng.
Other names: Hđãng, Kmrâng, Conlan, Brila.
Small local groups: Xơ-teng, (Hđăng), Mơ-nâm, Tơ-đrá (Tơ-trá), Ca-dong, Hà-lăng, Châu, Ta Trê (Tà Trĩ)
Population: 130,000
Language: Môn-Khmer
Area of habitation: (for Travel guide & Tours information )
Kontum, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi provinces.
The Xơ-đăng are an indigenous people, some having settled in Cambodia and Laos. According to oral tradition, in the past, the Xơ-đăng inhabited in a region further to the north before moving to their present area of habitation.
Material life
The Xơ-đáng live in long large houses-on-stilts made of wood or bamboo, with rectangular thatched roofs. The floor is about one metre above the ground. The principal door opens upwards like a blind window, in the centre of the front of the house. There is an elevated drying yard outside
the door. The ladder to the door is a tree trunk with steps cut into it. Houses are built around a communal house located in the middle of the village. Men wear loincloths and turbans on their heads, with the ends of the turbans touching down to their necks. When it is cold, they keep themselves warm with blankets. Woman wear pagnes, often high enough to cover their chests. They also leave the upper part of their bodies naked at times, but wear short vests when it is cold. Only ten years ago women dress like men.
The Xff-dang mainly practise swidden cultivation, except those who settled in the Eastern area and now cultivate rice-fields. It should be noted that the Ma-nam are not familiar with swidden farming and they practise “cultivation by fire and water”. Their work involves mainly turning over the soil with hoes, then having it trampled by buffaloes after watering with gutters and rudimentary “barrages”, which are sometimes just a rock placed in the middle of the stream to divert the flow. Rice-growing in submerged fields has been developing among the Xcr-dang for some time.
Horticulture plays an important role, having a wide range of extensively cultivated species and constituting a major source of food. It also reduces the time spent on food-gathering. Livestock-raising is also well-developed, with sizeable herds of cattle. Hunting remains however, a popular occupa¬tion which provides some variation in the people’s daily diet.
Handicrafts are rudimentary. Woven cloth and bamboo objects are intended primarily for family use. Only the Ta-dra group has skilled blacksmiths thanks to the ores available in the locality. And they can produce even steel. In general, 40 to 50 villages of the To-dra have 60-70 forges which turn out farming implements to meet local requirements and large interregional markets.
There is practically no trade. Barter is an essential form of exchange.
Social and family relationships
At the end of the 19th century, when social classes were appearing in Xo- dang community, foreign invasions upset the traditional organization of society. The unit of settlement was the village (ploi), a population centre comprising many houses and comparable to the hamlet of the Việt. Granaries, water storage facilities, the communal house, cemetery, hunting areas, and sections of rivers or streams were also part of the village. A village was generally surrounded by forest and is separated from neighbouring villages by a kind of no-man’s land which belonged to no one.
The plơì, or at least the residential area, was protected by a hedge riddled with traps, spears, stakes, and with only one entry gate. Adults were grouped into military units. Unmarried young men often stayed in the communal house with their arms, always ready to fight and defend the village against enemy attack.
The village chief and the council of elders settle all village affairs in accordance with custom based on the principle of democratic centralism. In the case of an important matter, a meeting of all villagers, both male and female, is held to discuss it to reach unanimity in the decision. The village chief is entrusted with the task of taking charge of the implementation.
Members of the village have the right to ownership and utilisation of slash-and-burn land, and arable gardens and ricefields — following the principle “each person has the right to enjoy the fruits of their labour”. Ricefields are in any* case negotiable among the members of the same village; anyone who leaves the village must give back all their land, for the right to ownership is granted only to the members of the community.
In the village, the rich, poor, and very poor co-habit on an equal footing. Labour exploitation does not exit; loans are granted without interest, and daily workers earn reasonable wages. The rich are respected as they have a considerable labour force and can conduct frequent ceremonies of sacrifices and organize feasts for the whole village. On these occasions, the rich families hold a display of their gongs, jars, buffaloes and so on. They also have servants and slaves who are, however, treated as members of the family. And, when old enough and having the required aptitude, the latter may themselves become village chiefs or military commanders.
In inter-village relations, equality prevails. Whether rich or poor, large or small, one village never imposes its will on others and never wipes out either friendly or enemy villages. Inter-village wars were frequent in Xơ-đăng society in the past and almost caused the disintegration of the early community. Wars were further aggravated by the trade in slaves, which was practised by the Siamese. In fact, these wars were motivated at the beginning by a “spiritual” need — the need to capture a prisoner and make him a sacrifice to the genies in the hope of achieving prosperity and health. Gradually they acquired a more mercantile purpose: to take more prisoners for cross-border sale. Those bloody conflicts could eradicate hundreds of village names during about 100 years.
In the village, each long house is intended for an extended family, (sometimes, including several generations). There may be parents on the both sides, widows, orphans, swear-bound “brothers” and old friends. The family head is designated as “chief of the roof’ (or of the house). Small families living under the same roof work together and enjoy together the fruit of their labour. Paddy is kept in a common pool, then distributed to families according to their needs. Besides such provisions and animals reared jointly by the community, each family has small livestock and a plot of land in the garden or of slash-and-bum land cultivated mainly for daily necessities. The nuclear family may leave the extended one to form a household.
The Xơ-đăng family is bilinear, a form of family organization character¬ized by the absence of a family name. A Xơ-đăng proper name consists of only one word with a prefix indicating the sex (A for men, Y for women). Among the Ca-dong in Sa Thầy, marriage is forbidden between people observing the same taboo.
Equality between men and women is respected. Likewise, there is no distinction between the children of a couple and step-children, between the children of a family and adopted children, or between boy cousins and girl cousins. Fraternization through swearing is a common custom of namesakes, of the people of the same age, or in the same situation. The persons concerned consider themselves brothers of the same bloodline and marriage between their descendants is prohibited.
The matrimonial tradition of the Xơ-đăng reflects the change from the dual to the triple matrimonial system. Young people of the same generation and are not descended from the same ancestor can marry each other. They form the nhong oh or đá oh (matrimonial groups) and consider themselves “brothers and sisters”. Two allied families are inclined to strengthen their ties with other unions, which leads to frequent marriages by exchange, unless they are not earnestly desired. On the other hand, if two or more families have matrimonial relations with a third one, marriage between their descendants is forbidden. Due to the small population of each village and the fact that each family is often allied to several others (obligations required by custom arise therefrom), it happens that a young man or woman can remain single until 30 or 40 years of age. Here, we can see another motive for inter¬village coupling which allows matrimonial exchanges.
Spiritual life
The spiritual life of the Xff-ddng adheres to the cycle of agricultural production. Rituals of a religious nature are concentrated in two periods: the time of land working and allotment of slash-and-burn land, and harvest time. Other ceremonies and festivities such as weddings, construction of a new house, sacrificing of a buffalo and so on are held during the two months between two agricultural cycles. The annual rituals of the cult of Mother Rice are observed by the chief of the roof.
The idea of a God-Creator does not exist among the Xo'-dang. However, they believe in the existence of genies, who perform each specific function. The importance of the functions varies but they are independent from one another. Other customs stem from superstition: abandonment of graves, allocation of property to the dead, outdoor childbirth and others.
The artistic and literary heritage of the Xa-daiig is abundant. The oral literary traditions have been published in collections while folk songs and dances have been brought to the stage. During festivities, various games and entertainments take place.
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