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Family and Gender Roles

Festivities

Food and Dress

Art, Literature, Music

Names

In the family unit, the man is responsible for affairs outside of the house while the woman manages domestic affairs.

Daily Life and Values

Family and Gender Roles

In Vietnam, Montagnard families traditionally lived in tribal villages. Related kin or extended families of 10 to 20 people lived in longhouses that shared public space with some private family room areas. The Montagnards have duplicated this living arrangement in North Carolina, sharing housing for camaraderie and support and to reduce expenses.

In Vietnam, the government relocation program is currently tearing down traditional longhouses in the Central Highlands in an attempt to break down the kinship affinity and solidarity of the close knit communities. Public housing is being built and mainstream Vietnamese are being relocated onto traditional Montagnard lands.

Kinship and family roles vary by tribe, but many of the tribes have matrilineal and matrilocal marriage patterns. When a man marries a woman, he joins her family, adopts her name, and moves into her family’s village, usually into her mother’s house. Traditionally, the woman’s family arranges the marriage and the woman pays a groom price to his family. While marriage is often within the same tribe, marriage across tribal lines is quite acceptable, and the man and children adopt the identity of the wife’s tribe. This serves to stabilize and further unify the various Montagnard tribes.

In the family unit, the man is responsible for affairs outside of the house while the woman manages domestic affairs. The man confers with village leaders about community and governmental affairs, farming and community development, and political issues. The woman is responsible for the family unit, finances, and child rearing. He is the hunter and the warrior; she is the cook and the childcare provider. Some family and farming chores are shared, and some are shared communally with others in the longhouse or village.

In the United States, adaptation to American culture and intermarriage with other ethnic groups are changing the Montagnard traditions. Men and women both work outside the home and share childcare according to work schedules. Because of the shortage of Montagnard women in the United States, many men live together in simulated family units. Exposure to other communities is leading more men to marry outside their tradition. Interethnic marriages create new patterns and roles that combine various ethnic traditions within the context of working-class life in the United States. When intermarriages occur, the most common unions are with mainstream Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and Black and White Americans.

Festivities

While there are no major holidays or events celebrated by the Montagnard refugees in the United States, community gatherings and social affairs are common. Sometimes these functions are church related. In North Carolina, people regularly travel to and from the three primary resettlement cities to see one another. Vietnam veterans typically host a Montagnard weekend picnic in May, and the Montagnard Dega Association traditionally organizes a statewide celebration in September.

Common vegetables include squash, cabbage, eggplant, beans, and hot peppers.

Food and Dress

The Montagnard diet traditionally centers around rice with vegetables and sliced barbecued beef when meat is available. Common vegetables include squash, cabbage, eggplant, beans, and hot peppers. Chicken, pork, and fish are quite acceptable, and the Montagnards are open to eating any type of game. Youth have adapted quickly to American fast food.

Traditional Montagnard dress is very colorful, handmade, and embroidered. It is still worn to cultural events and sold as a handicraft. However, most people wear the typical working-class clothes that their American coworkers wear. The children have naturally become interested in the clothing styles of their American peers.

Montagnard stories are traditionally oral and passed on through families

Art, Literature, and Music

Colorful blankets woven on looms are a Montagnard tradition. They are traditionally small and multipurpose, serving as shawls, wraps, baby carriers, and wall hangings. Other crafts include basket making, ornamental dress, and various bamboo utensils. Ornamental longhouse trim and bamboo weavings are an important part of the Montagnard tradition. Animal skins and bones are common materials in artwork. Bronze friendship bracelets are also a well-known Montagnard tradition.

Montagnard stories are traditionally oral and passed on through families. Written literature is quite recent and influenced by the church. Some older Montagnard tales and legends have been published in Vietnamese and French, but many of the traditional myths, legends, and tales have not yet been recorded and published

Montagnard instruments include gongs, bamboo flutes, and stringed instruments.

There are many popular songs, and they are played not only to entertain but also to preserve traditions. They are often accompanied with folk dances that tell tales of survival and perseverance.

Names

Naming traditions vary by tribe and the degree of accommodation to other cultures. Some people may use a single name. In some tribes, male names are preceded with a long e sound, indicated in the written language by a capital Y. This is comparable to the English Mr. and is used in everyday language. Some women’s names may be preceded by the sounds ha or ka, indicated by a capital H or K. Names may sometimes be stated in the traditional Asian way, with the family name first. Americans may experience confusion trying to distinguish between the given name, family name, tribal name, and gender prefix.

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