Bru-Vân Kiều
Denomination: Bru-Vân Kiều.
Small local groups: Bru, Vân Kiều, Măng Coong, Trì, Khua.
Language: Môn-Khmer
Population: Over 56,000
Area of habitation: Mainly in Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Đắc Lắc provinces and in Laos
Material life
The houses in a Bru-Vân Kiêu village are arranged either along rivers and streams or in more or less regular circles around a communal house. They are built on stilts. Sometimes they have a four-sided roof, the lateral sides of which take the shape of a turtle carapace as in the houses of the Cơ-tu and Gié-triêng of Quảng Nam province. However, roofs with double slopes are far more common. A wooden bird or two crossed wooden pikes resembling two horns serve as an antefix. The interior design is the same in all houses. Each house is divided Dy partitions lengthwise into four compartments. The first compartment is used for receiving guests, containing the "sacred" column for ancestor worship; the second is reserved for the old members of the family; the third for young couples and their children, and the fourth is for storing wealth, Each house has only one hearth, but in winter, a second one is installed in the sitting room. Cotton growing and weaving are unknown to the Bru-Vân Kiêu, who still use dyed fibres made from the crushed bark of the sui to make loincloths and vests for both men and women. However, they tend to be adopting the costume of the Việt or Lào.
The Bru-Vân Kiêu retain the custom of painting their teeth. Even young boys and girls like to have their teeth filed and their faces tattooed. All women wear their hair in a knot; for young girls, the knot is on the left side, and for married women it is on the top of the head. Nowadays, women cover their heads with a square of white cloth.
Cultivating fields and slash-and-bum land is the principal mode of agriculture. Apart from those who live in the highland region of Quảng Trị where conditions are relatively favourable for wet-rice growing, the Bru- Vân Kiêu are essentially swidden farmers. Nevertheless, techniques for the cultivation of rice in well-watered areas are relatively advanced in certain regions. Hunting and fishing are additional productive activities. Exchanges of goods take place mainly among co-villagers, in their homes. Some Bru- Vân Kiêu have become trully traders who act as intermediaries between the plain and mountain regions.
Social and family relationships
Bru-Vân Kiều society has experienced rather marked social differentiation. Landowners, besides their wealth, exercised a great deal of power because very often they assume the function of the chief of village or region, a function which, according to tradition, was handed down within the family, to a son or brother. They enjoyed many privileges and considered the region under their control to be their own real estate and the inhabitants their own people. The Bru-Vân Kiêu call their villages vil. Each vil has one or more mu (or dạ or mui), i.e. groups whose members come from the same paternal stock. These blood ties explain why the tradition of solidarity among the families of the same mu is always very strong, despite the increasing significance of neighbourliness.
The Bru-Vân Kiêu family is small and patriarchal, where boys are given greater consideration; girls have no rights to inheritance or can receive only an insignificant part of it. Monogamy and patri Locality are firmly-established traditions. Young people who intend to get married meet one another in the communal house or in small huts built far from the village to express their affection and discuss their future. The family of the fiancé must meet the requirements of that of the fiancée with regard to wedding offerings, and even after the wedding ceremony. The bride becomes a member of her husband's mu only after an expensive ceremony (takol) whose costs are covered by the husband's family. During this ceremony, the offerings are presented to the bride's parents and to her uncle. It should be noted that the opinion of the latter and of the bride's brothers are decisive in concluding a marriage. The principle of the tribal triple alliance is absolute; if young men from mu A marry young women from mu B, then young men from I till B must marry young women from mu c. Levirate and sororate are accepted. Likewise are marriages between cousins, provided they are not first cousins.
Spiritual life
Ancestor worship is the most important religious activity of the Bru-Vân Kiều. Each family has its own altar, and each lineage has a common altar. On the altar are displayed, for each of the dead, a fragment of a bowl, a fragment of a cooking pot, a tube of uncooked rice, a tube of water and a package of cooked rice. The spirits of the "wife's family", the deity of rice and others are also worshipped. Vestiges of totemism are still found; each mu has its taboos and its totem which may be an animal or plant (for instance, the squiưel, a tuber of sarsaparilla or a banana flower). There is some evidence of worshipping tutelary genie, gods of prosperity and of earth. Some people have converted to Buddhism.
The treasury of folk art and literature of the Bru-Vân Kiêu is very rich. Musical instruments are numerous: drums, gongs, wind instruments (amarn, ta l ien, pi and khơ-lui) and string instruments (achung, pơ lưa and ta lừ). Folk singing is popular, particularly alternate chants (prơ-giong) between young men and women, and sung stories (chà chấp). The language of the Bni-Vờn Kiêu is full of images, proverbs and maximes. The abundant collection of legends and narratives reflects the conceptions of the Bru-Van Kiêu about the origins of mankind, customs and practices, and retraces the emigrations of the remote past.
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