Gender+Roles+of+Women+of+the+Ede+People+in+Vietnam

=**Gender Roles of Women of the Ede People in Vietnam**=

“ Matrilineal: relating to, based on, or tracing descent through the maternal line.”

Who are the Ede People?
Historically, the Ede people, also known as the Rade, were the most economically prosperous of [|Vietnam’s ethnic minority peoples]. The Ede people originate from southern Vietnam (Vietnam Ethnic Groups, 2001). The Ede cultivate rice fields, practice [|animal husbandry], hunt and gather, fish, and basket weave (The Ê-đê). The Ede possess a, “rich and unique treasury of oral literature including myths, legends, lyrical songs, proverbs, and well-known khan (epics),” (The Ê-đê).

The Ede Family
In the Ede society, matriarchy continues to be the dominant social structure. The Khoa sang is the most elderly woman in the traditional longhouse; she holds highest level of authority within the house (Waddington, 2003). The extended family is the highest unit in the village and each family lives together in a long house spilt into two parts (The Ê-đê). The inside of the house is reserved only for the head women of the family, her spouse, and her daughters (Thinh, 2000). “The nuclear family belongs to the extended maternal family, so married couples are under the control of the wife’s grandmother or her mother. The husband has no rights in his wife's family,” (Mlo, 1998). The youngest daughter receives the inheritance from her mother (Vietnam Ethnic Groups, 2001). “The right of inheritance is reserved for daughters only. After marriage, the man comes to live at his wife's house,” (The Ê-đê, n.d.). In fact, the dominant perception is that daughters are preferred; they are the “insiders” who transmit property (and thus wealth), while the men are “outsiders,” (Mlo, 1998).

The sons have a responsibility to respect their sisters, in particular, the eldest, who will take over when the mother dies. On the other hand, sisters pray for their brothers, as the brothers provide important advice on important matters of weddings, funerals, house building, or selling land (Mlo, 1998).

Matriarchy
“Women are the masters of their families,” (The Ê-đê, n.d.). Though little details are known of the Ede people, the defining characteristic of the people is their withstanding matriarchal practices. These practices infiltrate the customs and behaviors, but also the language with which members of the community are addressed. Researcher Ng o Thinh (2000) describes this norm, stating that the Ede, “In referring to a couple made up of a male and a female (such as grandparents, parents, or husband and wife), the language of the Ede always names the female first, then the male; this is consistent in every sentence and situation of Ede poetry.” Language, a prominent indicator of societal behavior and priority, illustrates the dominance of the women in Ede culture. Further matriarchal practices include name taking, in which the children take the family name of the mother (Thinh, 2000).

The households are run and controlled by a “woman elder,” she is responsible for community affairs (within the extended family’s village unit) namely managing the domestic affairs of the family, finances, and child rearing. The males take on the responsibility of working with village leaders about government and political affairs and community development (World Relief Organization, n.d.). These practices parallel many of the duties that women in traditional patriarchal societies fulfill, ones that center on the tasks at home. In regards to the specific duties of the husbands within the community, husbands are, “representative for his wife and her kin, and his decisions to the villagers must always be contributed by them,” (Mlo, 1998). The important distinction of a matrilineal society is the perspective through which these duties are viewed. In the Ede matrilineal society, these tasks are held to high importance, and honor and respect are shown to the women who perform them.

Contemporary
Since 1975, several waves of Ede emigration to the United States have occurred, in large part due to the supportive role that the Ede people played as co-combatants alongside US forces in the American war in Vietnam (Vietnam Ethnic Groups, 2001). Many fled to avoid persecution due to conflict within Vietnam (Waddington, 2003; Mlo, 1998). This has led to changes that differ from traditional Ede practices; since nuclear families have begun to replace traditional extended families, Ede men have begun to take on greater roles in wage earning to help provide for the families, in turn shifting the disparity between power of men and women towards a more even one. In addition, women have begun to take on greater roles outside of the family, in the public sphere (Mlo, 1998).

=References =

Matrilineal. 1904. In Merriam-Webster.com. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Retrieved April 12, 2014 from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mlo, T. N. (1998, February). Relationship Between the Sexes in the Ede's Traditional Family and Society. Mekong Fisheries Network Newsletter, 3(3). Retrieved from http://www.mekonginfo.org/assets/midocs/0002710-biota-relationship-between-the-sexes-in-the-ede-s-traditional-family-and-society.pdf

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Ê-đê. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2014, from Discovery Indochina : http://discoveryindochina.com/vietnam/ethnic_group/ede/

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thinh, N. D. (2000). Traditional Law of the Ede. Asian Folklore Studies, 59, 89-107. Retrieved from http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/447

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Vietnam Ethnic Groups. (2001). Retrieved from VTCTravel Connecting Culture: http://www.vtctravel.net/en/Vietnam-Culture/vietnam-ethnic.php

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Waddington, R. (2003). The Peoples of the World Foundation. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from The Peoples of the World Foundation: http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Ede

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">World Relief Organization. (n.d.). World Relief, Stand for the Vulnerable. Retrieved from Cultural Profiles- Vietnamese: http://worldrelief.org/page.aspx?pid=1763