Words of the ancestors: disembodied knowledge and secrecy in East Timor

Abstract

By examining processes of revealing and concealing ancestral ‘words’, this article analyses the connection between East Timorese knowledge practices and status competition. The point of departure is a tension between the assertion by eminent ritual speakers in the Idaté‐speaking village of Funar of the need to discover the most truthful ‘trunk’ knowledge, and the simultaneous and continual concealment of what this ‘trunk’ may consist of. The article explores the discursive practices that sustain the notion that knowledge exists as an immutable essence outside of history, and the difficulty of maintaining this notion given dramatic historical events in East Timor in recent decades. Whereas secrecy and concealment are key strategies of dealing with unrelenting contestations over the ownership and content of ‘trunk’ words, a ritual speaker's attempt to deny the interrelational aspect of knowledge is undermined by the need for others to recognize him as its rightful guardian.

Dynamics of wilful blindness: An introduction

“…Professing to be ignorant of their ancestral religion, for example, can empower Sarawak Christians (in Malaysian Borneo) to avoid obligations towards demanding spirits (Chua, 2009). Ignorance can be a strategy for maintaining peaceful relationships or avoiding conflicts (Bovensiepen, 2014: 66–7; High, 2015); secretiveness can have generative social and political effects (Kirsch, 2015; Pelkmans and Machold, 2011). In contrast to the ‘political critique’ literature, studies examining the social effects of ignorance rarely import assumptions about autonomous rational actors and instead focus on socio-cultural contexts within which ignorance is produced and embedded.…”

Local Knowledge, Traditional Healers and Psychology: Causes, Symptoms And Treatments of Mental, Disorders in Timor.Leste.

“…The matan-dook's understanding of mental illness is not an idiosyncrasy shared by a specific group, on the contrary, it is part of a worldview, the set of mental heuristics and moral values, the notions of normal and pathological, the customs and social practices, and the symbolic and religious systems existing in East Timorese society that transcend mental disorders (see Traube, 1986;Hicks, 2004;Grenfel, 2012;Bovensiepen, 2014). Although the narrative is not homogeneous -as we will see in the next section -, the idea that mental disorders would be a punishment for possible transgressions of social norms is still common sense.…”

Pacification and Rebellion in the Highlands of Portuguese Timor

“…The mode in which unofficial accounts of the past were revealed differs radically from the way official narratives were expressed. Specific 'secrets' were always conveyed more privately, in small groups of two or three people and with an emphasis on how this information should not be shared (Bovensiepen 2014a). The According to this account Don João da Cruz of Manehiak was the holder of the 'sceptre' and therefore the political authority in Funar, but lost his position through trickery.…”