Mambai people

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Mambai people
Mambae / Manbae / Maubere

Orchestra in front of a church in Suco Ducurai, Letefoho Subdistrict, Ermera District, Timor Leste.
Total population
195.778 (2015)[1]
Regions with significant populations
East Timor (Dili District)
Languages
Mambai language, Portuguese language
Religion
Catholic (predominantly), traditional beliefs
Related ethnic groups
Kemak people, Melanesians, Austronesians

The Mambai (Mambae, Manbae) people are the second largest ethnic group after the Tetum Dili people in East Timor. Originally, they were known as the Maubere by the Portuguese. Maubere or Mau Bere is a widespread male first name among the Mambai people.^[2]

The Mambai number about 80,000^[3] from the interior of Dili District to the south coast of the territory, especially in the districts of Ainaro and Manufahi. Its principal centers are Ermera, Aileu, Remexio Administrative Post, Turiscai, Maubisse, Ainaro and Same, East Timor. Among the East Timorese exiles in Australia, the Mambai people are one of the main groups.

The Mambai language belongs to the Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages of the Timoric languages branch. It is the second most common mother tongue in East Timor with 195,778 speakers.^[4]

Circular houses with conical roofs are typical dwellings,^[5] and the Mambai cultivate maize, rice, and root vegetables.^[3]

Ethnically Mambai politicians include Francisco Xavier do Amaral,^[6] Manuel Tilman,^[7] Lúcia Lobato,^[8] and Fernando de Araújo.^[8]

• Elizabeth Gilbert Traube, Ritual exchange among the Mambai of East Timor: gifts of life and death, Harvard University Press, 1977.
• Elizabeth Gilbert Traube, Cosmology and Social Life: ritual exchange among the Mambai of East Timor, University of Chicago Press, 1986.
• Elizabeth Gilbert Traube (1980), "Affines and the dead: Mambai rituals of alliance", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 136: 90–115, doi:10.1163/22134379-90003539, ISSN 0006-2294

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