Diálogos

45–60

Authors: Jacques Alves

Martial and ritual arts groups are a set combination of sports activities in both physical and spiritual accomplishments to protect or defend themselves. This activity was banned a few years ago and decriminalized recently in 2022. However, the existence of these two sports activities reveals a significant controversial debate. This article attempts to analyze the relationship between political parties and martial and ritual arts groups. For this, secondary data collected from government reporting documents, non-governmental organizations and similar academic research publications were used. The results of this study indicate that there is indeed an interest in political parties. However, despite the motivation that mobilized this organization’s mass into political party affiliation, the influence of martial arts and ritual groups began to be the backbone of political parties’ support.

75-85

Authors: Nicolau Borromeu, David Martins

O objetivo deste artigo é refletir sobre a ideia de esperança no contexto timorense. Sabemos que esperança é um conceito abstrato que se manifesta de diferentes formas em cada espaço e tempo. Aqui iremos refletir, a partir de uma perspectiva filosófica, alguns dos possíveis significados da esperança em Timor-Leste – aliado aos conceitos de tempo e utopia –, onde o sonho da democracia e a esperança da independência constitui o passado, o processo de independência materializado em 1999 e a reconstrução do pais constitui o presente, e a esperança de construir uma sociedade justa, fraterna, próspera e solidária configura a esperança utópica do futuro.

105-130

Authors: Marie Quinn

The first national planning document of the newly independent Timor-Leste included in its vision that “East Timor will be a democratic country with a vibrant traditional culture” (East Timor Planning Commission, 2002, p. xviii). Education, as an important arm of nation-building, includes a strong link to culture by including the principle of “Ligasaun ba kultura no maneira moris lokál nian [Connection to culture and way of local life]” (Ministério da Educação [ME], 2014, p. 18). However, much of Timor-Leste’s educational history has been characterised by adherence to goals that rarely addressed Timorese needs or identity. Using content analysis, this paper traces the way in which official and educational documents have considered local people and conditions in the past - during the periods of colonisation and occupation - and those of the present, particularly through the current curriculum for primary school. Also considered are teachers’ responses to a recent survey of understanding of “local life”, suggesting that a greater orientation of learning to the local context is needed in the future to understand how education might strengthen Timorese communities and culture.

159–180

Authors: Wânia Miranda, Elen Silva Ferreira dos Santos

No presente artigo descrevemos algumas características do sintagma nominal da língua tetun prasa. A língua tetun prasa, falada em Timor-Leste, é a língua oficial do país ao lado da língua portuguesa. No presente estudo apresentamos brevemente a história de formação de Timor-Leste, bem como a situação sociolinguística do país que possui um cenário de multilinguismo no qual convivem em torno de 16 línguas. São poucos os estudos linguísticos sobre a língua tetun prasa, neste sentido, com base em dados coletados em Albuquerque (2010a, 2010b, 2011, 2013), apresentaremos as características dos elementos que compõem o sintagma nominal tanto a sua posição em relação ao núcleo nominal quanto a sua interação com os demais elementos dentro do sintagma, a fim de contribuir e preencher algumas lacunas existentes em relação aos estudos linguísticos sobre o tetun prasa.

203 - 216

Authors: Brittany Guidos, Joni Calvario, Maria Hendrika van Zuilen

Providers of Traditional Timorese Medicine are an essential resource in rural communities, contributing greatly to the overall health of individuals in Timor-Leste. Their identity and role in healthcare has not been widely investigated and functions outside of the National Health System. The objective of this qualitative study is to describe the role of providers of Timorese Traditional Medicine in Timor-Leste and their practice of medicine. To perform this research, semi-structured interviews were performed with providers of Traditional Timorese Medicine in the rural district of Viqueque. Interviews took place at providers’ homes in Tetun and, after translation into English, interview content was analyzed and emergent common themes identified. The seven providers of Timorese Traditional Medicine interviewed mostly identified themselves as either a Liman Badain, Matan-Dook, or reported no title. Another identified himself by his political position as village chief, Xefe-Suku. Emergent themes from interview content included 1) Medical pluralism, reflecting that Timorese frequently use more than one medical system; 2) Spiritual sickness, reflecting illness and treatments commonly involving ancestral spirits or supernatural forces; and 3) Familial knowledge, reflecting healing practices and knowledge often kept within a family and passed down across generations. Generally, providers reported that the most common symptoms they treated in their practice were illnesses/misfortunes related to a woman’s gynecologic health and were obstetric in nature, especially concerns regarding reproductive health. This qualitative study provides information about the key role of select individual providers of Timorese Traditional Medicine and adds to the limited existing knowledge. Further qualitative and quantitative research must be done to further characterize the identities and role of different providers of Traditional Timorese Medicine.

239 - 269

Authors: José Casquilho, Xisto Martins

Tara bandu is a traditional ceremony in Timor-Leste that enshrines a customary law with official recognition since independence, which generally applies to the spatial scale of the smallest administrative division of the territory (suco) and several years of timespan, rooting in tradition (lisan) concerning natural resources management and also relations among people. There is evidence related to the concepts of adat (tradition in Indonesia) and pemali (taboo) in Southeast Asia and Austranesia, suggesting that precursors of tara bandu should exist before the Portuguese arrival in the early XVI century. Yet, there was a subsequent diachronic process of hybridization of static iconic devices and other traditional Timorese practices with the vocalized Portuguese colonial bandos, evolving to a choreographic ritual with several semiotic dimensions: the sacrificial animist performance addressed to the ancestor’s spirits and a supernatural environment (lulik), dancing and singing and other artistic traits, including Catholic rites, then focusing on signing written documents endorsing commitments. The main objective of this paper is proposing a semiotic characterization of the hybridization processes leading to current tara bandu ceremonies using Peirce’s typology, rooting in the static and iconic device named kero (sensu Forbes) herein discussed. Contemporaneously, tara bandu is a salient event anchoring communities in defining participatory land use plans including agreements on property boundaries, rules of engagement and also interdictions and sanctions. Tara bandu is mentioned nowadays as an example and case-study of bottom-up strategies for environmental peacebuilding processes.

287 - 312

Authors: Josh Trindade

Artigu ida ne’e nia objetivu atu esplora tópiku tolu ho relasaun ba peskiza, lingua, no kolonizasaun no deskolonizasaun ba neon iha Timor-Leste. Uluk nanain hau sei esplika kona ba hau nia peskiza rasik; kona ba saida mak hau deskobre no buat seluk ne’ebé hau hakarak deskobre nu’udar peskizadór, surpreza sira ne’ebé ha’u hetan durante halo hau nia peskiza, nó mós kona-ba oinsá ema uza no simu hau nia obra sientífiku sira durante ne’e inklui mós obstákulu sira ne’ebé hau hasoru nu’udar peskizadór Timoroan. Tuir mai hau sei ezamina kona ba kolonizasaun ba Timoroan sira nia neon iha istória kolonizasaun iha Timor-Leste. Tanba durante hala’o peskiza, asuntu ne’ebé mak hau enfrenta babeik mak kolonizasaun neon Timoroan sira nian liu husi degradasaun ba Timoroan sira nia ideia no konseitu ne’ebé estraga Timoroan sira nian hanoin kona ba sira nia an rasik nu’udar sosiedade ida no nu’udar ema individual. Tanba ida ne’e, Timoroan sofre sentimentu inseguru kulturál no inferioridade ba mundu esterna sira. Ikus liu, hau sei analiza peskiza no polítika lingua husi perspetiva ema kolonizadu sira nian, fó argumentu katak deskolonizasaun ba neon liu husi peskiza no lingua nu’udar parte esensiál ida iha prosesu hari nasaun-estadu iha nasaun post-konflitu Timor-Leste. Hau sei hare asuntu hira ne’e liu husi ókulu antropolojia nian.