point that many young Ede used the kinship terms of the Kinh to call members in their family and they did not make a sharp distinction in the difference between the father’s side and the
Reason to choose the theme research
Ede people living in the highland of Vietnam are one of fifty-four ethnicities of Vietnam They belong to the family group of Malay-Polynesian and their linguistic family is Austronesia They have many different names such as: Ede, Rhade, De, Moi, etc but Ede is their popular name in Vietnam They are known as the matriarchal group by many researchers The rituals of the Ede are a big topic among social anthropologists The theme regarding the individual’s life cycle ceremonies, or the term of “rites of passage”, first propounded by van Gennep is not a new theme in the researches into Ede culture Although scholars have considered to the Ede rituals, they have paid little attention to the ritual alcohol that is used in these rituals In fact research on alcohol in rituals is scarce Ede people call their traditional alcohol cpe cheh 1 The indigenous Ede people use only one drinking straw, which is called đinh mnăm cpe in Ede language to drink wine cpe This drinking manner leads to a certain order in the drinking process, which gives prominence to the social ranks of members in the kinship system I found that drinking cpe cheh is an important part in all of the rituals of the Ede people, and the cpe cheh in particular has become a ritual in itself To be sure, drinking cpe cheh is not purely consumption but it is an obligatory etiquette of rituals Obviously, drinking cpe cheh as a cultural behavior has many meanings regarding cosmological concepts and the ideological system of Ede people
Cpe cheh is present in all of the rituals of the Ede people Drinking cpe cheh is performed in the rites of passage of the Ede that are worshipped at two places: the house with rites for living people and the cemetery with funeral For my project, a consideration of all of the rituals was beyond the scope Thus, I just study ritual alcohol cpe cheh within the limits of the rites of passage of the Ede In other words, I consider cpe cheh in aspects of ritual alcohol when I put it in the context of the rites of passage
In cpe-drinking, there is a transformation from water to wine (cpe) The direction of water is defined as the outside because water is pourred into cheh in the west of cheh As already mentioned, the west direction is understood as “the outside” The transformation from water to cpe happens in the inside of cheh when water combines to the mixture of rice and alcohol yeast Of course, this process is invisible in the inside of cheh After that, cpe is absorbed out from cheh in the east which is defined as “the inside” Thus, after the
1 Cpe cheh is a phrase including two words: Cpe means the wine and cheh means the jug
2 transformation which happens in the inside of cheh, water which belongs to “the outside” becomes cpe which belongs to “the inside” Three elements including: water, the mixture of rice and alcohol yeast and cpe transformed inside of the cheh are considered the stages in life cycle of humans in Ede culture In other words, the dualistic elements of transformation in cpe cheh such as: the outside and the inside are manifested the transformation of soul forms of humans which relates to the belief regarding reincarnation and the transformation regarding the social situation of male and female in the institution of marriage in Ede culture
From these points, I pursue the following question in the course of this thesis: What are the cosmological concepts, the ideological system and the social structure reflected in rites of passage of Ede society in the Central Highland of Vietnam? To answer this question, I focus on studying the arrangement, drinking behavior and relationships regarding cpe cheh in the rites of passage Classification of rites of passage is a basic factor if we want explore meanings of the type of rites as well as meanings of cpe cheh in the correlative ritual.
Research question and concepts used
What are the cosmological concepts, the ideological system and the social structure reflected in rites of passage of Ede society in the Central Highland of Vietnam?
Methods
Research stages
The fieldwork lasted for 4 months and it was divided into the following stages:
The first period: from May 2015 to June 2015
In the first month of the fieldwork, I met some Vietnamese and Ede scholars who researched into the Ede culture in the highland of Vietnam They gave me a general description that relates to the past culture of Ede people and how it has changed After that, we discussed choosing my sites of research These scholars proposed many different areas where the Ede have settled in Daklak province They wanted to select these areas according to the different criteria such as: the cultural interference between the Ede and the Kinh, the economic development in Ede communities, the effect of the tourist industry on the Ede culture and the change of traditional belief with the appearance of Catholicism and Protestantism I recorded their suggestions and chose a field site after I visited Ede people
3 at this place Regarding the reasons that made me choose the field site, I will mention it in the part about sites of the research
In addition to the academic discussion, the reference materials relating to the Ede culture were collected from some libraries of universities in Ho Chi Minh City They are the pieces of research such as: books, MA and PhD theses, and scientific journals Researching materials is a necessary step to equip me with theoretical arguments in the study procession These research works provide me with an overview about the Edee culture Furthermore, they show me what topics were researched by the scholars previously My theme of research inherits these research works of scholars and seeks new discoveries
The second period: from June 2015 to August 2015
In the second period, I left Ho Chi Minh City and arrived in Daklak, a province of the highland of Vietnam I lived with Ede people in their two villages Dur and Kmăl for about twelve weeks.While staying here, I used the methods of ethnographic fields to collect data for my research The main methods applied include participation, observations, and in- depth interviews After that, all of data were written down in my field notes on site The notes collected through observations and interviews are important data in my arguments.
The field-site of the research
Reasons of the field-sites choosing
Choosing field-sites depends on the object of research My theme of research is cpe cheh, so I relied on this criterion to choose Ede villages It is worth emphasizing that the traditional rituals are the important contexts of analyzing meanings of ritual alcohol, because only in these rituals is drinking cpe cheh regarded as a ceremony and therefore, the particularities of cpe cheh are manifested
I sought out and arrived in some villages where the Ede still practice their traditional rituals without having any influences from outside cultures This means the Ede do rituals because of their true wishes and demands Nowadays, at some villages, the Ede practice their rituals to satisfy the curiosity of tourists or newspaper reporters These practices are only the public performance before audiences
Additionally, the appearance of other religions such as Catholicism and Protestantism in Ede communities changed the traditional practices of the Ede To be sure, there is the opposition in religious belief of monotheism of Ede Catholics or Ede Protestants and polytheism of Ede people who believe in animism The result is that belief and ritual practices relating to animism are renounced by Ede Catholics or Ede Protestants From
4 this, it follows that the monotheist Ede do not recognize cpe cheh drinking as a ritual behavior In the case of Ede Catholics, they still drink cpe cheh but cpe cheh is regarded as simply a beverage in their parties An Ede Catholic invited to a traditional ritual will refuse to drink ritual alcohol For Ede Protestants, they think that alcohol is a harmful beverage for their mind and body Thus, all the types of alcohol including cpe cheh are forbidden in the communities of Ede Protestants
I chose two villages of Ede people according to the criteria which was already mentioned The Ede call their village buôn I chose two villages: buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl to carry out my research Buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl are territories of the Krông Ana district, Daklak province Almost all of the Ede believing in animism live at these villages Therefore, the ritual practices, and the alcohol drinking in these rituals, are always performed in buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl Only a small part of the population is Catholic and Protestant in these villages Although I focus on the rituals of Ede people who believe in animism, I also observed the rituals and the alcohol drinking of Ede Catholics when I was living at these villages These informations from these observations gave me the differences in opposition to beliefs of monotheism and polytheism
The history of the Ede villages
Buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl are the neighboring villages Buôn Dur located next to buôn
Kmăl and they belong to the Dur Kmăl commune, Krông Ana district, Daklak province Because of their neighboring location, these two villages share a common history in the war on Vietnam before 1975 The old Ede inhabitants could not remember exactly the time when their forefather settled in buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl This region was probably settled by the Ede a long time ago From 1960s, all of the Ede inhabitants of buôn Dur and buôn
Kmăl left their villages to live in the forest with the soldiers of the liberation army who came from North Vietnam The fight against the puppet soldiers of South Vietnam was led by the Communist party of Vietnam This fight is the dark days of the indigenous Ede people at buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl They left their houses, the domestic animals, properties, and hulled rice in the villages and it was very difficult to remain alive in the forest Many Ede died in this period before coming back to their villages In the forest, Ede people lived in poverty and always coped with the possibility of death This state was a temporary life because they had to escape from the attacks of the puppet soldiers The lack of the material comforts led to the lack of needs of the mind and spirit No doubt, there were no rituals of Ede people in this period The Ede hold their ceremonies only when living in a plentiful condition All of the ceremonies of the Ede need the sacrificial animals
5 and cpe cheh In the forest, Ede people have nothing to hold a ceremony If they do not have enough rice to eat, they will never use it to brew wine
Ede people of buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl spent fifteen years living in the forest Many indigenous Ede became the party members of the Communist party of Vietnam because of their services in the fight In other words, becoming the party members of the Communist party of Vietnam was a reward for services rendered to their country This is also an important reason that explains why Ede inhabitants of buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl did not join in the Catholic or Protestant communities like the other Ede villages Based on this, the traditional rituals are still retained and practiced at buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl by the Ede inhabitants
After 1975, the Ede inhabitants of buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl came back to their old villages Since then, they have restored and developed everything up Currently, some policies of Vietnam government are applied to the Ede villages in the highland The policy referring to the population arrangement led to the change in the structure of villages In earlier times, every Ede village had two parts regarding their locations in the village: an area for the living and an area for the deceased The living settle in their houses in the east of the village, this means that they belong to the inside of the village In comparison, the cemetery is in the west of the village, it means that this area is understood as the outside of the village However, this structure of the village was changed by the population arrangement in policies of the Vietnam government Nowadays, the living not only live in the east of the village but also expand their area to the west of the village The Ede call the area where they used to live the old village, and the area where they have expanded is the new village The result is that the structure of the Ede village has three parts now: the old village in the east of living people, the new village in the west of living people and the cemetery in the west of dead people
The particular traits of two villages
The village background: the population, the ethnic groups, the economic activities
The population of buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl is always changes because of the increasing in population density of parturition and emigrants
The increasing population is the result of the increasing parturition at Ede villages The fact is that the birth-control policy of the government encouraging every family should born around one to two children did not achieve the desired effect Nowadays, every nuclear family of the Ede has approximately four to six children They still believe that the family has many children is better than a lot of property
The New Economic Policy of the Vietnamese government applied from 1984 relates to the increasing number of emigrants at Ede villages The Kinh coming from the lowland immigrated to Ede villages in the highland of Vietnam The demographics in January 2015 of buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl showed the following figures: Buôn Dur has a total household of 227 with 1458 people A number of Ede households are 148 with 651 people Kinh people have 136 households and the rest of households are 48 with 226 people include Tay, Nung, Muong people As to buôn Kmăl, there are 227 households with 1073 people Among these households are 201 Ede households with 974 people The remaining part of this village is 26 households of the Kinh with 99 people
The major economic activity of the indigenous Ede at buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl is cultivation Rice is the main crop plant on the fields, besides they also grow some plants such as corn, kinds of beans, coffee, rubber As Anna de Hautecloque Howe points out, tilling in the fields is a common activity of the mature members who live together in a house gõ êsêi Gõ êsêi had been exactly translated as a “rice pot” As to the economic aspect, gõ êsêi is a production and consumption unit In the old days, this unit included many nuclear families The marital couple and their children of every nuclear family in gõ êsêi culvivate in their field, but their agricultutal products are stored as the common or personal property in a paddy storehouse of gõ êsêi Nowadays, gõ êsêi is unit of one nuclear family generally Besides, the Ede members of families in a kinship usually work exchange to help each other on the fields, especially in the harvest or when a new crop begins
In addition to agriculture, the Ede also breed some domestic animals, for example, buffalo, cow, pig, chicken, dog and cat The Ede breed a small number of animals in the area around their house only using them in their rituals The traditional handicraft is also a work in many Ede communities such as: weaving work instruments, weaving fabric, but it is not popular in buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl
As mentioned, the number of Kinh people is just a little in comparison with the population of the Ede; however, the Kinh had their influence with the indigenous Ede in buôn Dur and buôn Kmăl While the Ede and other ethnic groups only earn their living as cultivators, the economic activities of the Kinh are more diversified The Kinh make a healthy profit on the food and household commodities trade Besides, the Kinh are merchants purchasing the farming products of the indigenous Ede Nowadays, many Ede people can speak Kinh language - Vietnamese and their lifestyle is similar to the Kinh people’s such as cloths, the kinds of food, the music of the young Ede Furthermore, the
Methods
To collect data for the research, I used the ethnographic methods at Ede communities for about twelve weeks The main methods used as my research tools include participation, observation, interviews After that, I wrote down all of information in my field notes in site
It is very important that the ethnographic participation is one of basic task of ethnographic researchers Ethnographic participation is applied in the period of collecting data This method requires that researcher need presenting at field-sites in a long time to understand the ideological system and behavioural customs of people in these communities I arrived in Ede villages at Krông Ana district, Daklak province and stayed at Ede houses after choosing field-sites for my theme research I tried to look for someone who expert in Ede history and traditional culture and stayed at their houses At both of two villages where I arrived in, I stayed at the houses of khua buôn in twelve weeks
Living in the house of the indigenous Ede, I learned many rules regarding the Ede traditional house Ede sang 3 as well as I discovered that Ede sang is a special context where all of rituals are performed in it Its materials are wood and it can expand its length when there are more the marriages of female members in the Ede family Thus, Ede sang is regarded as a symbol of the matriarchal clan Nowadays, the Ede live in many types of houses because of many reasons, for example, the lack of wood from the forests or the influences from the lifestyle of the Kinh in Ede villages The settlement of the Ede in the many types of house without the Ede sang leads to the change meanings of etiquettes in the ritual practices I recorded these changes in my field notes when I attended rituals that were performed in both Ede sang and other types of houses
The indigenous Ede people have many activities in their daily life and I took part in these businesses with them as a member in their family The Ede have to toil away for a living Cultivation is the main job of the Ede in their field Some main agricultural products are harvested include: rice, corn, kinds of beans, coffee, rubber Although my research theme does not relate the economic subject, I also took part in some agricultural works when I had free time
Above all, I focused on participating in all of the rituals that were organized at buôn
Dur and buôn Kmăl in twelve weeks Unluckily, my fieldwork lasting from June to August coincided with the period of the new rice sowing Anna de Hautecloque Howe pointed out that the life of the Ede in Daklak province abide by the rhythm of the rice cultivation This rhythm depends on the monsoon that is defined as a period of the heavy rain in summer in Southeast Asia As a result, the life rhythm of Ede people divides up into two following periods: the rain season lasting from May to November is coincided with the period of rice cultivation The second period correlates with the dry season which last from January to April In this period, farming activities become minor important but the religious activites become crowed It is difficult to participate in many rituals at Ede villages in my fieldwork because the Ede usually hold their ceremonies after the harvest However, although not that the time of the harvest, some rituals were still performed because of the personal demands of some Ede people in the community
Some rituals that I participated in as a member of the village are the funeral (msat), the purification rite (ngă Yang cbưi), the good health worship or the oneself worship (ngă Yang asêi mlêi), the new house worship (ngă Yang sang mrâu) I could not attend two
3 In Ede language, the traditional house is called sang
11 important rituals in the rites of passage of the Ede because they did not organize them in my fieldwork They are the weeding (Kuôl ung mỗ), and the named child worship (ngă Yang pi anân) For the wedding, I watched videos regarding the traditional marriage ceremonies of some Ede families in the community Although it is not enough detail like I need, I could use them to imagine the context of the Ede weeding From this, I interviewed many other inhabitants to collect data about this ceremony As regard to the named child worship (ngă Yang pi anân), it was rarely performed in Ede villages Nowadays, the Ede replace it by the birthday party Although I could not take part in this ritual, I collected the information about it from interviews and the theses of other researchers
In the ceremonies, I helped Ede women some businesses in the household such as cooking or dishes washing The indigenouse Ede people distribute works for the men and the women distinctly in their rites; therefore, I only could take part the activities of women in their areas For works of men, nobody allowed that I could do them Hence, I only observed the activities of men and asked them if I did not understand meanings of what they did in the rituals
My ethnographic participation was advantage because the Ede warmly greeted me in their rituals Furthermore, the time and the place of ceremonies organized by other Ede families were also informed me by the Ede in the village They introduced me to these families with pleasure and thus, I presented at almost rituals in two villages of Ede people The total number of rites what I participated directly is eleven in both of two villages Moreover, I felt familiar with the Ede in some aspects when researching their culture in my country, Vietnam The reason is that the Ede and the Kinh in Vietnam became familiar because of the cultural exchanges between ethnicities nowadays Many Ede people can speak Vietnamese of the Kinh because Vietnamese has become a lingua franca in Vietnam Besides, Ede people have also much the similar things as Kinh people such as: their cloths in daily life, economic activities, the common money using …
Besides the advantages, I was also faced with some difficulties when staying at strange places My biggest problem is the cultural different because I am Kinh people but the subject of my research is Ede people The customs and beliefs in culture are different between the Kinh and the Ede I am a Kinh person, thus obviously, I feel unfamiliar when acquiring knowledge from Ede people’s culture I think that there is an overlap between familiar and unfamiliar feeling in my period of fieldwork Additionally, when I became familiar with some persons in Ede communities, they told me both their knowledge and feeling They sometimes commented on the relations in Ede community and judged some
12 persons Evenly, they also told me to know about it when feeling unsatisfied with a person Obviously, I did not evaluate anyone by based on these stories I thought that what I need is the information regarding the research issues I did not want intervene the sentimental relationships of people in the community Evaluating a good or bad person belongs to the moral category However, these stories referring to someone also affect the way that I meet and talk with them In some cases, I could avoid talking to their emotional problems when known about the situation of some persons For example, the incest is a forbidden subject
The observation is a specific method of social anthropology This method based on the ethnographic participation requires researcher has to penetrate into the field-sites and observate carefully the local people in a long time The purpose of this method is that researchers can observe, experience, and catch informations from the events which happen in the community By living with Ede people, I observed their activities in workdays and rituals easily The observations regarding the process of rituals directly brought me a lot of the lively feelings and considerations than watching them on videos As already mentioned, there were some rituals that I could not observe directly in my fieldwork Although I watched these rituals on videos that made film from the truthful events of Ede families in their community, I did not satisfy with my observations
The Ede are familiar with their culture, thus, they practice them easily as soon as they do not understand the meanings of them The fact is that they preserve their culture and practice them like the way that their previous generations taught them, especially in rituals For some questions regarding the ritual behaviors, the Ede cannot answer them because they did not understand what they are practicing They do all things by sheer force of habit being familiar with them Therefore, when I am an outsider, nothing in Ede culture is familiar with me It was difficult to understand the culture of a strange ethnicity but this helped me that I did not miss out any detail which I observed in rituals I cared and always asked many questions regarding everything in the life of the Ede
I also realize the importance of the systematic eye in observations in my fieldwork Every cultural practice of Ede people always divides into the fixed regions such as: the contrary regarding places of women and men in the house, the west and the east, the inside and the outside, etc.These contrary are based on the division of the oppositional aspects concerning the cosmological concepts in Ede culture From this division, the structure of behaviors has created
I tried to keep every detail of the rituals in my mind while practicing the ethnographic observation However, it is difficult to memorize all of the ceremonies when I only observate them in the first time Besides, when rituals were performed in the adjoining days of the week, I had not enough time to write down all of the detailed data in my fieldnotes Therefore, making films, taking pictures, and using record are the ways that I applied in my observations Futhermore, I focused on movements, manners, the express feelings of participants in rituals when collecting the information because I think that these behaviors are pregnant with many symbolic meanings These image data will be used to explain and demonstrate the arguments in my research
The cosmological concepts of the Ede
1.The forms of the human soul in relation to the living ( mngăt ), the deceased ( atâu ), and the reincarnation ( yun )
The traditional belief in three forms of the human soul
The Ede believe that the human soul exits on three forms: mngăt, atâu, and jun
Mngăt is thought as the soul of living people while atâu is the soul of the dead people.The deceased also have their soul because the Ede have faith in a life after death.They think that the living live in the first life and the second life is the life of the deceased However, the deceased do not live in the second life forever; their soul is able to come back the first life of living people and as a result their soul can exist in a new body In other words, besides the belief in an afterlife, the Ede also trust in the reincarnation Yun presenting in the period of reincarnation is third form of the human soul Both of atâu and yun are the souls of the deceased, however, the Ede do not think that atâu can transform the soul from the deceased to the living By contrast, yun can do this The fact is that there are a lot of stories that are told about yun of the deceased reincarnated in the newborn babies by the Ede in their communities
The circular continuum of the living and the deceased
As already metioned, the Ede have confidence in the first life of the living and the second life of the deceased Every Ede person has to live in these two lives before reincarnating in the new body These two lives can be imagined as two circular continuums of the living and the deceased The Ede describe the second life is same as the first life but it is regarded as a reserve life in all of sides with the first life In sum, the second life is the reflection of the first life The second life includes the similar and reverse characteristics in comparison with the first life
The Ede people probaly imaniged the life of the deceased when observating the real life of living people Therefore, they think that demands for the dead people are similar to living people In the Ede culture, a dead person receives an inheritance as a living person when this person dies Indeed, his family members prepare this person the nescessary objects such as traditional blankets, the papoose, the work instruments, etc in the funeral
As to the reverse characteristic of the second life in comparison with the first life, it is worth emphasizing that the operation of two circles of the living and the deceased is based on cosmological concepts concerning both of the opposite directions of the east, the west and the operation of the sun, the earth The created daytime and the night is the result of the closely connection of the operation of the sun and the earth and the opposite directions of the east and the west That is to say, the daytime correlates the movement of the earth orbits the sun This procession begins from the east and ends in the west In comparison, the movement of the earth goes around the sun beginning from the west and ending in the east is linked with the night More importantly, the east is believed as where the living begins, but the west is where the living ends This is reason that houses of living people are always built in the east, but the graves are built in the west of the Ede village
The Ede believe that the first life of the living correlates the day while the second life of the deceased correlates the night In other words, the daytime of the living is the night of the deceased By contrast, the night of the living is the daytime of the deceased Form this, it follows that the living and the deceased live at the same time in their life, but only the structure of the time is reverse This means the life of the deceased is not too strange to the living The second life is a reverse copy of the first life
By comparison with the first life, the Ede not only consider the time but also metion to everything of the second life in the reserve order If the living use the intact objects, the deceased will use the broken objects Hence, the Ede always break all of the objects before these objects are buried with the dead body in the grave They believe that these objects will become the undamaged objects in the life of the deceased
Additionally, using the hand of living people is also reserve in comparison with the deceased The comparison between the first life and the second life is same the way a men look at himself through a mirror In other words, the men standing before the mirror is same as a living person in the first life, and his reflection in the mirror is same as the way that this person exists in the second life Therefore, if living people use their right hand in almost all of the activities such as holding the drinking straw đinh mnăm cpe in cpe cheh- drinking, holding chopticks in the meals, shaking hand with somebody, etc., they have to use their left hand to do these things to the deceased For example, the Ede have to use their left hand when giving rice to the deceased That is to say, the Ede are under the impression that in the life of the deceased, the right hand of the living is the left hand of the deceased Thus, the deceased only can receive something from the living if the living use their right hand to give it to them The opinion regarding using the right hand or the left hand is important in the ritual behaviors connected the belief systems These discussions will remind in the ritual practices, especially, in the drinking behavior
2 The stages of the life cycle of the indigenous Ede
The correlation between the stages of the life cycle and the kinship terms for the individual
The Ede not only use kinship terms to call the family members but also to talk about the individuals in their community Using the different kinship terms aims to define the different social positions of individuals in both the family and the community In other words, an individual is called by the different kinship terms in the different stages of life cycle The transition of the stages of the life cycle is not only connected to the rites of passage but it is also linked to being born of a new generation in the mother’s line
From this, it follows that when a baby is born and the worship giving a name this baby is performed, Ede people call him as “Y and his first name” in case of the male baby, and they also call her as “H’ and her first name” if this baby is a female For example, Y Hung is name of a boy and H’ Hue is name of a girl After that, when an Ede person gets married, the traditional wedding marks the transition two periods of this person from the state of singles to the state of marriage A female is called with the term that includes “mỗ + Y and the name of her husband” in Ede language, for example: mỗ Y Hung This means the female is the wife of a man whose name is Y Hung Also, a male is called as “ung + H’ and the name of his wife”, for example ung H’Lan and its means that the male is the husband of a woman whose name is H’ Lan
However, the name plused with the term of the husband (ung) or the wife (mỗ) is only called when a maritual couple has not their first child yet In other words, both of the husband and the wife are changed their names when having their first-born child no matter the son or the daughter In a detailed way, a female is called with the following term: “amĩ + the name of the first born child”, for instance: amĩ H’ Hue This term is used to talk about a woman who is the mother of a child whose name is H’Hue and H’Hue is her first born child In almost the same way, Ede people call the father as “ama+ the first name of the first born child”, for example: ama H’Hue
In the third stage of the life cycle, when the individuals have the first born grandchild who belongs to the mother’s line, people is called as aduôn if they are females and as ae if they are males For instance, the term “aduôn Y Nam” is used to call a woman who is grandmother of whose name Y Nam and Y Nam is her first-born grandchild of the mother line Similarly, the term “ae Y Nam” is used to call a man who has become a grandfather There is no any special ritual which marks for the transition the stages of a person from the role of parents to the role of grandparents However, when an Ede person, especially, an Ede man lives in the ages of this period, he will hold the sequence of sacrifices to offer the guardian gods Yang asêi mlêi The sequence of rituals is called as ngă Yang asêi mlêi which means the good health worship or the worship for guardian gods
When an Ede person dies, it means that this person goes to the final stage of the life cycle Ede people in community add the term “Yang” before the term of the name that they usually call this person when he or she alives For example, the Ede call a woman as
“aduôn H’ Ngan” when she still lives with them, but they will call her as “Yang aduôn H’Ngan” when she dies The change of terms by adding “Yang” before the name shows that the Ede have faith in the world of gods (Yang) and the deceased belong to the world of
Yang Death is an important transition in the stages of the life cycle and no doubt, this transition is marked by the funeral in the traditional culture of the Ede
The preparedness for the transition in the stages of the life cycle
As already mentioned, Ede people have many stages in their life cycle The kinship terms used to show the social rank of every individual in both the family and the community are closely linked with these stages However, there are three stages which lead to the important changes in the life cycle of everyone These stages are asscociated with the great landmarks in the history of every individual It is important to note that the Ede mark them by the rites of passage