The Mambai (Mambae, Manbae) people are the second largest ethnic group after the Tetun 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.
Settlement area The Mambai number about 80,000Clifford Sather and James J. Fox (eds), Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography, ANU E Press, 2006, Chapter 7. 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.
Culture 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.
Circular houses with conical roofs are typical dwellings,Tony Wheeler, East Timor, Lonely Planet, 2004, p. 93. and the Mambai cultivate maize, rice, and root vegetables.
Notable people Ethnically Mambai politicians include Francisco Xavier do Amaral,Asian survey, University of California Press, 2003, Volume 43, Issues 4-6, p. 754 Manuel Tilman,International Crisis Group, Asia Briefing N°65, 13 June 2007 Lúcia Lobato,East Timor Legal Information Site, 2007 and Fernando de Araújo.
References
Further reading 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.