Traversing Customary Community and Modern Nation-Formation in Timor

TIMOR-LESTE Identity, Security, Community Volume Eleven, 2012 Eleven, Volume LOCAL–GLOBAL Identity, Security, Community Security, LOCAL–GLOBAL Identity, Volume Eleven Volume 2012 Traversing customary community and modern nation-formation in Timor-Leste Guest Editor Damian Grenfell Front Cover: Sorumutu, Dili, December 2006 This page: Handwoven cotton used for making Tais, Venilale, July 2011 Identity, Security, Community Local–Global is a collaborative international journal concerned with the resilience and difficulties of contemporary social life. It draws together groups of researchers and practitioners located in different communities across the world to critically address issues concerning the relationship between the global and the local. It emphasises the following social themes and overarching issues that inform daily life over time and space: Authority–Participation Belonging–Mobility Equality–Wealth Distribution Freedom–Obligation Identity–Difference Inclusion–Exclusion Local Knowledges–Expert Systems Mediation–Disconnectedness Past–Present Power–Subjection Security–Risk Wellbeing–Adversity Local–Global 1 Workers at Cooperativa Cafe Timor, Dili, June 2004 2FRETILIN rally,Local–Global Dili, April 2012 Damaged portrait of Alfredo Reinado, Becora, April 2007 Celebrations as Portugal makes the final of the EuropeanLocal–Global Cup, Dili, July 20043 LOCAL–GLOBAL Volume Eleven, 2012 Contents Contributors 8 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction Traversing customary community and modern nation-formation in Timor-Leste Damian Grenfell 16 Short essays ‘Filling wounds with salt’: the pathologisation of trauma in Timor-Leste Emily Toome 24 Playing pool at the Hard Rock Café Gordon Peake 32 Re-interpreting customary practice as a framework for development: lessons of Timor-Leste’s Community Reconciliation Process Sam Carroll-Bell 36 Negotiating modernisation and gender in the post-conflict reconstruction of Timor-Leste Lynsze Woon 46 Reviewed essays Entangled worlds: villages and political community in Timor-Leste M. Anne Brown 54 New Fataluku diasporas and landscapes of remittance and return Andrew McWilliam 72 Remembering the dead from the customary to the modern in Timor-Leste Damian Grenfell 86 EDITOR FOR THIS ISSUE Damian Grenfell with editorial assistance from Emily Toome (RMIT University) SERIES EDITORS Damian Grenfell, Anne McNevin, Martin Mulligan, Yaso Nadarajah and Peter Phipps (RMIT University) MANAGING EDITOR Michelle Farley GENERAL EDITOR Paul James GLOBAL ADVISORY BOARD Professor Jon Altman (Australian National University, Canberra), Professor Dennis Altman (La Trobe Uni- versity, Melbourne), Professor Perry Anderson (University of California, Los Angeles), Professor Terrell Carver (University of Bristol), Dr Alan Chun (Academica Sinica, Taipei), Professor Lane Crothers (Illinois State University, Bloomington), Professor Jonathan Friedman (Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris), Professor Barry Gills (University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), Emeritus Professor Jack Goody (Cambridge University), Professor Bruce Kapferer (University of Bergen), Associate Professor Glen David Kuecker (DePauw University, Greencastle), Professor Krishan Kumar (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), Professor T. Vasantha Kumeran (University of Madras), Professor David Lyon (Queens University, Ontario), Professor Walter Mignolo (Duke University, Durham), Professor Juliet Mitchell (Cambridge University), Professor Ashis Nandy (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi), Professor Brendan O’Leary (University of Pennsylvania), Professor Jamal Nassar (Cal State University, San Bernadino), Professor Martha Nussbaum (Uni- versity of Chicago Law School), Professor Chris Reus-Smit (Australian National University, Canberra), Professor Fazal Rizvi (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Professor Jan Aart Scholte (University of Warwick), Professor Jukka Siikala (University of Helsinki), Professor James Spencer (University of Hawai’i-Manoa), Professor Gayatri Spivak (Columbia University, New York) 4 Local–Global Multiple realities: the need to re-think institutional theory Deborah Cummins 110 Compatibility, resilience and adaptation: the barlake of Timor-Leste David Hicks 124 Barlake: an exploration of marriage practices and issues of women’s status in Timor-Leste Sara Niner 138 Hybrid governance in local communities in Timor-Leste Hybrid governance and democratisation—village governance in Timor-Leste M. Anne Brown 156 Finding a new path between lisan and democracy at the suku level Jose da Costa Magno and Antonio Coa 166 Electing community leaders: diversity in uniformity Alex Gusmao 180 Customary social order and authority in the contemporary East Timorese village: persistence and transformation Mateus Tilman 192 Introduction of a modern democratic system and its impact on societies in East Timorese traditional culture Abel Boavida dos Santos and Elda da Silva 206 Dynamics of democracy at the suku level Martinho Pereira and Maria Madalena Lete Koten 222 Timor-Leste Research Program at RMIT University 236 Design and layout: Michelle Farley Typesetting: Barbara Alber Local–Global welcomes contributions from interested authors and researchers. Please email contributions as a Microsoft Word file to [email protected]. Papers in the ‘Reviewed essays’ section of LOCAL–GLOBAL are academically refereed articles. Manuscripts are read initially by the editors. If considered to fall within the journal’s brief, the manuscript is forwarded to two referees who conduct a blind review. Referee’s comments are forwarded to the author, and the editors determine whether the article has been adequately corrected or adjusted for publication. The editors reserve the right to alter the normal refereeing process in exceptional circumstances. Local–Global is published by the Globalism Research Centre, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Australia, 3001. www.rmit.edu.au/globalism. JOURNAL WEBSITE www.rmit.edu.au/globalism/publications/journal ISSN 1832-6919 Local–Global 5 6Statue of VirginLocal–Global Mary on top of Mt. Ramelau, June 2004 Filomena Fuca and Ambrosio Dias Fernandes undertaking interviews in Venilale, October 2009 Bagia, November 2004 Local–Global 7 Contributors M. Anne Brown is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland. Research and applied interests focus on approaches to building political community across division and difference, peace-building and state formation in hybrid states, and social dialogue processes. She has been visiting and researching in Timor-Leste since 2002. Sam Carroll-Bell is a graduate from RMIT University with a Master in Social Science (International Development). He has worked with the Globalism Research Centre and is now Research Co-ordinator for The Centre for Sustainable Organisations and Work at RMIT University. He is also President of the arts advocacy group Artists for Human Rights and Action and a founding member of the anti-human trafficking organisation Stop.Traffick Australia. Sam’s research explores the framing and impact of international development activities. Antonio Coa is a lecturer in Public Administration at the National University of Timor-Leste. Jose da Costa Magno was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Science at the National University of Timor-Leste. He has established with Mateus Tilman a local NGO, The Conflict Management and Action Research Centre, which is involved in a range of activities including renegotiating tarabandu. He has recently completed a higher degree in Portugal. Deborah Cummins is an Associate at the Peace and Conflict Studies Institute of Australia (PaCSIA), a visiting lecturer and researcher in the department of Community Development at the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), and a consultant and trainer on local governance, decentralisation, democratisation, human rights and women’s political participation. She has been working on local governance issues in Timor-Leste since 2008. Damian Grenfell is the Director at the Globalism Research Centre at RMIT University, and regularly works in and visits Timor-Leste. Alex Freitas Gusmao is Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Timor-Leste. At the time of researching this essay, he was Director of Timor Aid and a lecturer in Community Development at the National University of Timor- Leste. Alex has written or co-authored a number of articles and book chapters, both about issues of corruption and about the interaction of local and national approaches to governance and peace-building. David Hicks is a Life Member of Clare College, University of Cambridge, and Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University. He holds Doctor of Philosophy Degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of London and his scholarly specialisations lie in the fields of politics, oral literature, ritual, Indonesia and East Timor, in both countries of which he carried out field research. 8 Local–Global He has published extensively, including Tetum Ghosts and Kin (2004) and Readings in the Anthropology of Religion (2010). Professor Hicks can be contacted at david. [email protected] Maria Madalena Lete Koten is a lecturer in Public Administration at the National University of Timor-Leste. She is currently undertaking a higher degree in Portugal. Andrew McWilliam is a Senior Fellow in Anthropology in the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. He has researched widely on the

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