Kemaki

According to data for 2000, the number of Kemaki people is 110 thousand people, of which 85 thousand people live in Indonesia . Tetums are close to the people. They speak the Kemak language. Kemaki is one of the smallest of the 14 Austronesian subgroups in Timor (Toth 1980: 143). Most adhere to traditional beliefs, some profess the Catholic faith . The territorial community is headed by the leader, divided into childbirth. There are three-clan unions. The “private” type of organization corresponds to the uma or “house” level, it means not just housing, but classifies exogamous groups of older and younger brothers who have a common ancestor. The “collective” type refers to the morobo community, which encompasses 7 villages containing mainly 3 houses and united by a common ritual cycle (Monnig Atkinson 1986: 464).

Traditional Dwellings

Settlements of the ring layout, build temporary dwellings in the fields. The housing is quadrangular, pile, frame, with a high roof that goes almost to the ground. Community houses are round.

Traditional Activities

They are engaged in manual farming, grow corn, dry land and aspic rice, yams, taro, coconut and areca palms. They are engaged in animal husbandry, bred buffalos, goats, chickens.

• Members M. A. Kemaki // Peoples and religions of the world / Chapters. ed. V.A. Tishkov . M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia, 1999.S. 234.
• Monnig Atkinson J. An Ema Community of Timor. by Brigitte Renard-Clamagirand // The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Feb., 1986), p. 464.
• Toth A. The Negrito of Malacca; Timor: Chants des Éma by Brigitte Clamagirand // Ethnomusicology, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jan., 1980), pp. 142-145.