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| Degar (Montagnard) | |
|---|---|
| Group | Degar (Montagnard) |
Degar (Montagnard) describes a collection of indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam and adjoining areas of Cambodia and Laos, historically known to outsiders as Montagnards. The term encompasses multiple ethnolinguistic groups such as the Jarai, Rhade, Bahnar, Katu, and Mnong, each associated with distinct Austronesian languages, Austroasiatic languages, and localized cultural institutions. Their identities have been shaped by interactions with neighboring polities like the Kingdom of Champa, French colonial authorities, the Viet Minh, and the governments of French Indochina, South Vietnam, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The exonym "Montagnard" derives from French language colonial classification during French Indochina administration, paralleling other colonial labels such as Kabyle or Berber. "Degar" is a self-designation used among some groups and promoted by diaspora activists in contexts involving the United Nations and international human rights organizations. Identity constructions intersect with markers tied to clans, village lineage systems, and customary leadership comparable to institutions found among the Jarai people, Rade people, Bahnar people, and Mnong people.
Highland societies inhabited the Central Highlands (Vietnam) for millennia, engaging in shifting relations with lowland states like the Champa kingdom and later the Vietnamese Empire. During the 19th century, French colonial expansion in French Indochina intensified missionary activity by orders such as the Paris Foreign Missions Society and settlement policies that altered land tenure. In the 20th century, World War II and the First Indochina War brought Degar communities into contact with the Viet Minh, while the Vietnam War and allied operations involving the United States and Central Intelligence Agency led to large-scale recruitment of highland fighters and resettlement initiatives. Post-1975 policies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam produced demographic shifts and state-run agricultural programs, prompting international campaigns by groups such as Human Rights Watch and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Degar groups speak languages from the Austronesian languages family (e.g., Jarai language, Cham language influences) and the Austroasiatic languages family (e.g., Bahnar language, Rhade language). Oral traditions, epic narratives, and ritual songs are comparable to epics documented among Javanese and Cham cultures, transmitted through tongkonan-style communal houses and longhouse structures seen in Southeast Asian longhouse architectures. Material culture includes textile weaving, gong ensembles linked to the Kong Cheong tradition and the Gong culture of the Central Highlands, and rice and swidden cultivation techniques comparable to practices recorded in ethnographies from Laos and Cambodia.
Religious life interweaves animist cosmologies, ancestor veneration, and syncretic Christianity introduced by Catholic and Protestant missionaries, leading to adherents affiliated with denominations such as the Protestantism in Vietnam and Roman Catholicism in Vietnam. Ritual specialists, shamans, and village elders manage rites of passage, agricultural ceremonies, and funerary practices analogous to those in Austronesian and Austroasiatic communities. Social organization features kinship-based clans, customary law comparable to documented adat systems, and village councils that negotiate land use and intergroup marriages with neighbors from Kinh people majority areas.
Traditional subsistence relied on swidden agriculture (slash-and-burn), wet-rice terraces, and forest resource management paralleled in studies of the Shifting cultivation systems in Southeast Asia. Cash-crop transitions introduced coffee and rubber plantations integrated into markets tied to Ho Chi Minh City and regional trade routes. Wage labor, seasonal migration to urban centers, and participation in state-sponsored agricultural cooperatives reflect economic transformations following reforms such as Đổi Mới and trade linkages with ASEAN economies.
Degar political mobilization has engaged with entities from local chieftains to international NGOs. During the Second Indochina War, formations allied with United States Special Forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam created legacies of veteran communities and refugee flows to countries including the United States and France. Postwar policies on land allocation, resettlement, and religious practice have been the focus of reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and parliamentary inquiries in the United States Congress. Activist networks in diaspora have petitioned forums such as the European Parliament and the United Nations Human Rights Council concerning cultural rights, land restitution, and freedom of belief.
Degar populations are concentrated in Vietnam's provinces of Đắk Lắk Province, Gia Lai Province, Kon Tum Province, Đắk Nông Province, and Lâm Đồng Province, with communities across the border in Ratanakiri Province (Cambodia) and Attapeu Province (Laos). Demographic data collection by colonial censuses, postcolonial Vietnamese statistical agencies, and international organizations documents growth, urban migration, and shifts in age structures comparable to indigenous population dynamics elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Diaspora concentrations exist in metro areas like Seattle, San Jose, California, Paris, and Marseille where advocacy groups coordinate cultural preservation and political outreach.
Category:Ethnic groups in Vietnam Category:Indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia