Kelly Silva | Universidade de Brasília - UnB (original) (raw)
Books by Kelly Silva
Leiden University Press, 2023
The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise T... more The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise Timor-Leste’s economy as weak, homogeneous and disformed and elucidates the agentive
cultural institutions, logics and practices which underpin and mobilise diverse Timorese economic ecologies. It begins from the assumption that capitalism and its market economy is only one regime, among others, of production, exchange, distribution and consumption that people
rely on to make their living. Developing the idea of the interdependencies of economic diversity, it outlines the processes through which an assemblage of institutions and their localised and historical relationships are mobilised for reproducing collective life. It introduces the ways in
which subsequent chapters analyse this economic diversity and presents an overview of the ways in which they pattern out across diverse spatio-temporal contexts.
The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise T... more The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise Timor-Leste's economy as weak, homogeneous and disformed and elucidates the agentive cultural institutions, logics and practices which underpin and mobilise diverse Timorese economic ecologies. It begins from the assumption that capitalism and its market economy is only one regime, among others, of production, exchange, distribution and consumption that people rely on to make their living. Developing the idea of the interdependencies of economic diversity, it outlines the processes through which an assemblage of institutions and their localised and historical relationships are mobilised for reproducing collective life. It introduces the ways in which subsequent chapters analyse this economic diversity and presents an overview of the ways in which they pattern out across diverse spatio-temporal contexts.
Sérgio Luiz Cruz Aguilar; Isabela Zorat Alonso, Jul 10, 2018
A presente obra é resultado da XV Semana de Relações Internacionais, intensa jornada acadêmica re... more A presente obra é resultado da XV Semana de Relações Internacionais, intensa jornada acadêmica realizada em 2017 na Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências da Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP) – campus de Marília – SP. Apresenta ideias, opiniões, argumentos e questionamentos de acadêmicos, diplomatas e pesquisadores que participaram do evento, por meio de artigos sobre diversos temas das Relações Internacionais.
O evento teve como tema central a política externa e segurança no presente século, embora, em razão da amplitude dessa área do conhecimento, tenha contado com atividades que abordaram outros temas ligados às Relações Internacionais.
Os trabalhos desta obra foram distribuídos em seis partes: Desafios dos Processos de Paz e Questões Humanitárias; Forças Armadas; Desafios dos Processos de Integração Regional; Diplomacia e Relações Internacionais; Governança e Imigrações; e Desenvolvimento.
Os Desafios da Política Externa e Segurança no Século XXI refletem a amplitude das Relações Internacionais e a preocupação em tematizar, desenvolver e aprofundar o estudo dos diversos campos dessa área do conhecimento.
The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2020
This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building ... more This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building in Timor-Leste. We deploy two sets of empirical data to analyse the role ambiguity plays in particular power dynamics: the East Timorese legislation on community authority, and ethnographic descriptions of a local form of conflict resolution at the village level. The ethnographic analysis points to the fact that local authorities see themselves and are seen by villagers as state representatives. However, the legal framework may be seen as an effort by the Timorese national authority to detach itself from local leaders, but it does so ambiguously. While the state positions local authorities as community representatives of the people it also assigns them an increasing number of functions over time, many of which would be elsewhere considered state responsibilities. We argue that this ambiguity plays a vital role in a long-term strategy to legitimise the state by appropriating local elements of political culture. That being so, local governance complexes are used to transpose and internalise modern practices and projects of social organisation and subjectivation, although they tend to be considered by many as longstanding cultural institutions. K E Y W O R D S development, law/human rights, local governance, politics, social change
Content: Prefácio Apresentação - A construção da administração pública timorense: elenco e ce... more Content:
Prefácio
Apresentação - A construção da administração pública timorense: elenco e cenário
Capítulo 1 - A reunião de Timor-Leste com os parceiros do desenvolvimento
Capítulo 2 - A feira do livro lusófono
Capítulo 3 - As nações unidas e a construção de capacidades
Capítulo 4 - As nações desunidas
Capítulo 5 - Díli em festa e festas em Díli
Capítulo 6 - Retornados e projetos disciplinares para a função pública
Capítulo 7 - Os de fora e os de dentro: novas fontes de conflito e ressentimento
Conclusão - Paradoxos da autodeterminação: algumas perspectivas
Peer Reviewed Articles by Kelly Silva
Horizontes Antropológicos, 2024
This article discusses the concept, design, and contracting processes of the first phase of the T... more This article discusses the concept, design, and contracting processes of the first phase of the TOMAK program (acronym for To'os Ba Moris Di'ak, translated as Farming for Prosperity in English, and Agricultura para Prosperidade in Portuguese). The program was funded by the Australian government and implemented in Timor-Leste between 2016 and 2021. We argue that these processes elevate the program to the status of a commodity, accessed in the global market by specific mechanisms of competition and subject to certain fetishes. The program's management practices reflect the new role that nation-states have played under the dominance of neoliberalism: as catalysts of competition on multiple fronts. We contextualize the phenomena discussed as products of long-term historical processes related to the reconfigurations of international development cooperation practices. Our analyses are based on documental and digital ethnographies and two decades (2000-2020) of observations in the field of international cooperation in Timor-Leste and beyond.
Anuario Asia Pacifico 2021, 2021
This article consists of a brief analysis of the events that occurred in Timor-Leste during 2020.... more This article consists of a brief analysis of the events that occurred in Timor-Leste
during 2020. It discusses the development and conclusion of the political crisis that had been
dragging on since the formation of the VIII constitutional government, as well as some of the
administrative challenges the state had to face. We place special emphasis on the socioeconomic
impacts that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the country and its inhabitants. In
a year in which there has not been excessively noteworthy news about Timor- Leste’s
international politics, human security in its different aspects has become the central aspect to
consider.
Plural Plureil, 2019
Esse dossiê tem como objetivo reunir produções de diferentes áreas de estudo focadas na análise d... more Esse dossiê tem como objetivo reunir produções de diferentes áreas de estudo focadas na análise de processos de objetificação da cultura em Timor-Leste. No espaço dessa introdução, compartilhamos com o/a leitor/a características básicas comuns aos fenômenos de objetificação. Ao mesmo tempo, apresentamos os artigos que compõem esse dossiê de modo a indicar como, em cada um deles, a objetificação da cultura se impõe por meio de múltiplas mediações.
Revista Museologia e Interdisciplinariedade, 2017
Este artigo discute narrativas de caracterização de bens culturais imateriais produzidas e irradi... more Este artigo discute narrativas de caracterização
de bens culturais imateriais produzidas
e irradiadas pelo Instituto do Patrimônio
Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN). Inspirados
pela teoria do ator-rede, argumentamos
que o objeto das políticas de registro e
salvaguarda de bens imateriais são híbridos
constituídos por associações heterogêneas
de humanos e não-humanos. A justaposição
entre diferentes domínios de ação e a agência
de atores ontologicamente distintos na
conformação dos bens culturais imateriais
registrados como patrimônio nacional é positivada
nas narrativas que os descrevem. Tais
fenômenos, bem como a apreensão dos bens
imateriais como produto de trajetórias históricas
singulares e indicadores de tradições
que sustentam identidades coletivas, são interpretados
como índices de certo romantismo.
Somente quando renomeado como
tradição, produzido a partir de correlações
complexas, o legado colonial figura como actuante
na configuração dos bens reconhecidos
e passa a ser assim objeto de salvaguarda.
No limite, estas políticas elas se voltam à
salvaguarda de formas de ação e interação
sobre o mundo pré-modernas.
Anuário Antropológico, 2017
This essay examines the social position of women and the implications of gender representations ... more This essay examines the social position of women and the implications of gender
representations among indigenous peoples in post-World War II Portuguese
Timor. It is a bibliographic critique based on works of academic anthropology
and of certain missionary and colonial administrative ethnographies published
between the 1950s and 1980s. I argue that in general women occupied a
relatively subaltern position in the collective dynamics of social reproduction.
This results from the specificity of local social structures and from the separation
of sex and gender. I attempt to elucidate an apparent contradiction: on the one
hand, femaleness, as a gender classifying principle, is associated with superiority
among many peoples in Timor-Leste and, on the other hand, women are often
in subaltern positions regarding collective reproduction. I argue that the ways the
female principle and the idea of fertility are ritually handled serve the purpose of
producing and reproducing male dominance in the dynamics of collective social
reproduction and the co-opting of women’s power of giving life.
Oceania, 2018
This article addresses the current praxis and controversies framing marriage prestations in urban... more This article addresses the current praxis and controversies framing marriage prestations in urban East Timor. Drawing on data related to practices, narratives, and social location of agents who stand for and against barlake (the local name for a part or the whole of marriage prestations), it suggests how the association of marriage transactions with different regimes of exchange – namely, gift and commodity – is a means for producing prestige and social distinction between ema Dili and ema foho. The lack of consensus about a single meaning for barlake allows everyone to reproduce their commitments with local and global expectations of modernity. Such phenomena result from ascribing marriage prestations to the gift regime of exchange, regardless of the number or the kind of gift functions implied in them. The controversies surrounding barlake entail a moral narrative of modernity struc-tured by anxieties related to: (1) fixing ontological boundaries between people and things; (2) the alliance effects people search for when carrying out their marriage; (3) the social history and politics of custom associated with Dili as a place of civilized/assimilated people, and, finally; (4) people's historical period of migration to the city.
Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, vol. 18, número 51, Feb 2003
This paper discusses the events organized by Brazilian State to celebrate the so called “500 year... more This paper discusses the events organized by Brazilian State to celebrate the so called “500 years of Brazil’s discovery”, between 1998 and 2000. It seeks to identify the ideologies
found in these activities, which revealed the images of the nation. It shows that those activities were critical
events for the Brazilian nationbuilding process. Taking for analysis documents, discourses, exhibitions,
museums, and others, the paper suggests the rituals performed at those “celebrations” retake the Brazilian myth of the “three races” and a kind of lusotropicalist ideal, making
possible the reediting of the idea of a “racial democracy” by Brazilian State.
Horizontes Antropológicos, Jan 1, 2007
The article focus on the conflicts which took place in East Timor in 2005, between the Catholic C... more The article focus on the conflicts which took place in East Timor in 2005, between the Catholic Church and the Government, regarding the role of the religious teaching in the basic school curriculum. The analysis indicates that the debates built around this issue express different State-Nation building projects for that country, so as disputes among different groups in relation to their roles in the independency process. We propose that the events should be understood as a product of the itinerary of certain sectors of the Timorese people during the Indonesian occupation of the territory. We point, that way, to the singular position of the counter-diasporas, former members of the diplomatic front, to whom the Catholic Church (self proclaimed as representative of the "insiders") now opposes. The protests also pointed to a still incipient debate on the building of a national memory, the Catholic Church claiming for a correct acknowledge, by the State, of its own role against the Indonesian occupation.
Mana
Este texto propõe que aspectos relevantes das práticas de cooperação internacional para o desenvo... more Este texto propõe que aspectos relevantes das práticas de cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento são melhor compreendidos à luz do regime da dádiva. Para tanto, confrontam-se dados etnográficos relacionados com o modus operandi do campo da AID em Timor-Leste com os legados de Marcel Mauss e a recente produção do M.A.U.S.S. Indica-se que as políticas internacionais de doação são veículos privilegiados de construção de hegemonia em arenas glocalizadas de negociação, mediante as quais diferentes atores constroem identidades e vínculos de aliança, honra e precedência. Neste debate, sugere-se que a maior contradádiva de Timor-Leste à comunidade internacional seja a de se colocar como um instrumento por meio do qual valores caros aos seus doadores, expressos nos mitos ocidentais de boa sociedade, possam mais uma vez ser cultivados no processo de edificação de um novo Estado-nação.
The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the values that have been mobilized as a source... more The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the values that have been mobilized as a source of political legitimacy in East Timor since the restoration of independence. To do so, it uses as a principal analytical anchor the campaign activities held in the realm of the first round of presidential elections in the country in April 2007. They are placed in perspective through
a comparison with other moments of political conflict. By means of ethnographic observation of electoral phenomenon – rallies, radio and television programs and journalistic coverage – I seek to identify some of the moral and sociological principles on which modern political authority is claimed in the
country by the different groups of its elites. Among other things, I highlight the centrality of the veterans of the Falintil in this field. This fact, associated to the discussion of the public performances of the various candidates during the campaign, is seen as an indicator of the importance that ideas and values such as suffering, recognition and reciprocity occupy in the repertoire
of contemporary East Timorese political culture. I also present a hypothesis about the mechanisms through which the capilarization of modern institutions such as political parties and the Nation State, have taken place in the country: by means of alliances between the cosmopolitan urban elites and local
authorities, mediated by veterans of the resistance.
Key words: East Timor, political culture, elections, recognition, reciprocity
Anthropological Forum, Jan 1, 2010
Revista de Estudos AntiUtilitaristas e …, Jan 1, 2012
This article discusses aspects of the topogenic processes involved in the East Timor nation build... more This article discusses aspects of the topogenic processes involved in the East Timor nation building. Foho (mountains) and Dili are so presented as particular places, devised as products of long-lasting government practices in Timor. Based on the controversies surrounding marriage prestations in the contemporary Dili, the representations projected onto the foho are explored. I argue that the mountains are characterized, among others things, as the loci of "usos e costumes" (customs), of sacred lands and objects, of origin houses, of customary law, and of the ancestors to whom most East Timor people are related and where a series of required rituals are performed to maintain the normal flow of life. As in many other territories that were colonized belatedly, we see in East Timor the urban/rural, town/hinterland oppositions at work which resulted from colonial bifurcate State. While placing such oppositions on a comparative perspective with Oceanic and South Eastern Asian countries, I also claim that they are the base for the politics of custom that have been re-emerged in the postcolonial East Timor.
Leiden University Press, 2023
The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise T... more The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise Timor-Leste’s economy as weak, homogeneous and disformed and elucidates the agentive
cultural institutions, logics and practices which underpin and mobilise diverse Timorese economic ecologies. It begins from the assumption that capitalism and its market economy is only one regime, among others, of production, exchange, distribution and consumption that people
rely on to make their living. Developing the idea of the interdependencies of economic diversity, it outlines the processes through which an assemblage of institutions and their localised and historical relationships are mobilised for reproducing collective life. It introduces the ways in
which subsequent chapters analyse this economic diversity and presents an overview of the ways in which they pattern out across diverse spatio-temporal contexts.
The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise T... more The introduction to this volume challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise Timor-Leste's economy as weak, homogeneous and disformed and elucidates the agentive cultural institutions, logics and practices which underpin and mobilise diverse Timorese economic ecologies. It begins from the assumption that capitalism and its market economy is only one regime, among others, of production, exchange, distribution and consumption that people rely on to make their living. Developing the idea of the interdependencies of economic diversity, it outlines the processes through which an assemblage of institutions and their localised and historical relationships are mobilised for reproducing collective life. It introduces the ways in which subsequent chapters analyse this economic diversity and presents an overview of the ways in which they pattern out across diverse spatio-temporal contexts.
Sérgio Luiz Cruz Aguilar; Isabela Zorat Alonso, Jul 10, 2018
A presente obra é resultado da XV Semana de Relações Internacionais, intensa jornada acadêmica re... more A presente obra é resultado da XV Semana de Relações Internacionais, intensa jornada acadêmica realizada em 2017 na Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências da Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP) – campus de Marília – SP. Apresenta ideias, opiniões, argumentos e questionamentos de acadêmicos, diplomatas e pesquisadores que participaram do evento, por meio de artigos sobre diversos temas das Relações Internacionais.
O evento teve como tema central a política externa e segurança no presente século, embora, em razão da amplitude dessa área do conhecimento, tenha contado com atividades que abordaram outros temas ligados às Relações Internacionais.
Os trabalhos desta obra foram distribuídos em seis partes: Desafios dos Processos de Paz e Questões Humanitárias; Forças Armadas; Desafios dos Processos de Integração Regional; Diplomacia e Relações Internacionais; Governança e Imigrações; e Desenvolvimento.
Os Desafios da Política Externa e Segurança no Século XXI refletem a amplitude das Relações Internacionais e a preocupação em tematizar, desenvolver e aprofundar o estudo dos diversos campos dessa área do conhecimento.
The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2020
This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building ... more This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building in Timor-Leste. We deploy two sets of empirical data to analyse the role ambiguity plays in particular power dynamics: the East Timorese legislation on community authority, and ethnographic descriptions of a local form of conflict resolution at the village level. The ethnographic analysis points to the fact that local authorities see themselves and are seen by villagers as state representatives. However, the legal framework may be seen as an effort by the Timorese national authority to detach itself from local leaders, but it does so ambiguously. While the state positions local authorities as community representatives of the people it also assigns them an increasing number of functions over time, many of which would be elsewhere considered state responsibilities. We argue that this ambiguity plays a vital role in a long-term strategy to legitimise the state by appropriating local elements of political culture. That being so, local governance complexes are used to transpose and internalise modern practices and projects of social organisation and subjectivation, although they tend to be considered by many as longstanding cultural institutions. K E Y W O R D S development, law/human rights, local governance, politics, social change
Content: Prefácio Apresentação - A construção da administração pública timorense: elenco e ce... more Content:
Prefácio
Apresentação - A construção da administração pública timorense: elenco e cenário
Capítulo 1 - A reunião de Timor-Leste com os parceiros do desenvolvimento
Capítulo 2 - A feira do livro lusófono
Capítulo 3 - As nações unidas e a construção de capacidades
Capítulo 4 - As nações desunidas
Capítulo 5 - Díli em festa e festas em Díli
Capítulo 6 - Retornados e projetos disciplinares para a função pública
Capítulo 7 - Os de fora e os de dentro: novas fontes de conflito e ressentimento
Conclusão - Paradoxos da autodeterminação: algumas perspectivas
Horizontes Antropológicos, 2024
This article discusses the concept, design, and contracting processes of the first phase of the T... more This article discusses the concept, design, and contracting processes of the first phase of the TOMAK program (acronym for To'os Ba Moris Di'ak, translated as Farming for Prosperity in English, and Agricultura para Prosperidade in Portuguese). The program was funded by the Australian government and implemented in Timor-Leste between 2016 and 2021. We argue that these processes elevate the program to the status of a commodity, accessed in the global market by specific mechanisms of competition and subject to certain fetishes. The program's management practices reflect the new role that nation-states have played under the dominance of neoliberalism: as catalysts of competition on multiple fronts. We contextualize the phenomena discussed as products of long-term historical processes related to the reconfigurations of international development cooperation practices. Our analyses are based on documental and digital ethnographies and two decades (2000-2020) of observations in the field of international cooperation in Timor-Leste and beyond.
Anuario Asia Pacifico 2021, 2021
This article consists of a brief analysis of the events that occurred in Timor-Leste during 2020.... more This article consists of a brief analysis of the events that occurred in Timor-Leste
during 2020. It discusses the development and conclusion of the political crisis that had been
dragging on since the formation of the VIII constitutional government, as well as some of the
administrative challenges the state had to face. We place special emphasis on the socioeconomic
impacts that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the country and its inhabitants. In
a year in which there has not been excessively noteworthy news about Timor- Leste’s
international politics, human security in its different aspects has become the central aspect to
consider.
Plural Plureil, 2019
Esse dossiê tem como objetivo reunir produções de diferentes áreas de estudo focadas na análise d... more Esse dossiê tem como objetivo reunir produções de diferentes áreas de estudo focadas na análise de processos de objetificação da cultura em Timor-Leste. No espaço dessa introdução, compartilhamos com o/a leitor/a características básicas comuns aos fenômenos de objetificação. Ao mesmo tempo, apresentamos os artigos que compõem esse dossiê de modo a indicar como, em cada um deles, a objetificação da cultura se impõe por meio de múltiplas mediações.
Revista Museologia e Interdisciplinariedade, 2017
Este artigo discute narrativas de caracterização de bens culturais imateriais produzidas e irradi... more Este artigo discute narrativas de caracterização
de bens culturais imateriais produzidas
e irradiadas pelo Instituto do Patrimônio
Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN). Inspirados
pela teoria do ator-rede, argumentamos
que o objeto das políticas de registro e
salvaguarda de bens imateriais são híbridos
constituídos por associações heterogêneas
de humanos e não-humanos. A justaposição
entre diferentes domínios de ação e a agência
de atores ontologicamente distintos na
conformação dos bens culturais imateriais
registrados como patrimônio nacional é positivada
nas narrativas que os descrevem. Tais
fenômenos, bem como a apreensão dos bens
imateriais como produto de trajetórias históricas
singulares e indicadores de tradições
que sustentam identidades coletivas, são interpretados
como índices de certo romantismo.
Somente quando renomeado como
tradição, produzido a partir de correlações
complexas, o legado colonial figura como actuante
na configuração dos bens reconhecidos
e passa a ser assim objeto de salvaguarda.
No limite, estas políticas elas se voltam à
salvaguarda de formas de ação e interação
sobre o mundo pré-modernas.
Anuário Antropológico, 2017
This essay examines the social position of women and the implications of gender representations ... more This essay examines the social position of women and the implications of gender
representations among indigenous peoples in post-World War II Portuguese
Timor. It is a bibliographic critique based on works of academic anthropology
and of certain missionary and colonial administrative ethnographies published
between the 1950s and 1980s. I argue that in general women occupied a
relatively subaltern position in the collective dynamics of social reproduction.
This results from the specificity of local social structures and from the separation
of sex and gender. I attempt to elucidate an apparent contradiction: on the one
hand, femaleness, as a gender classifying principle, is associated with superiority
among many peoples in Timor-Leste and, on the other hand, women are often
in subaltern positions regarding collective reproduction. I argue that the ways the
female principle and the idea of fertility are ritually handled serve the purpose of
producing and reproducing male dominance in the dynamics of collective social
reproduction and the co-opting of women’s power of giving life.
Oceania, 2018
This article addresses the current praxis and controversies framing marriage prestations in urban... more This article addresses the current praxis and controversies framing marriage prestations in urban East Timor. Drawing on data related to practices, narratives, and social location of agents who stand for and against barlake (the local name for a part or the whole of marriage prestations), it suggests how the association of marriage transactions with different regimes of exchange – namely, gift and commodity – is a means for producing prestige and social distinction between ema Dili and ema foho. The lack of consensus about a single meaning for barlake allows everyone to reproduce their commitments with local and global expectations of modernity. Such phenomena result from ascribing marriage prestations to the gift regime of exchange, regardless of the number or the kind of gift functions implied in them. The controversies surrounding barlake entail a moral narrative of modernity struc-tured by anxieties related to: (1) fixing ontological boundaries between people and things; (2) the alliance effects people search for when carrying out their marriage; (3) the social history and politics of custom associated with Dili as a place of civilized/assimilated people, and, finally; (4) people's historical period of migration to the city.
Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, vol. 18, número 51, Feb 2003
This paper discusses the events organized by Brazilian State to celebrate the so called “500 year... more This paper discusses the events organized by Brazilian State to celebrate the so called “500 years of Brazil’s discovery”, between 1998 and 2000. It seeks to identify the ideologies
found in these activities, which revealed the images of the nation. It shows that those activities were critical
events for the Brazilian nationbuilding process. Taking for analysis documents, discourses, exhibitions,
museums, and others, the paper suggests the rituals performed at those “celebrations” retake the Brazilian myth of the “three races” and a kind of lusotropicalist ideal, making
possible the reediting of the idea of a “racial democracy” by Brazilian State.
Horizontes Antropológicos, Jan 1, 2007
The article focus on the conflicts which took place in East Timor in 2005, between the Catholic C... more The article focus on the conflicts which took place in East Timor in 2005, between the Catholic Church and the Government, regarding the role of the religious teaching in the basic school curriculum. The analysis indicates that the debates built around this issue express different State-Nation building projects for that country, so as disputes among different groups in relation to their roles in the independency process. We propose that the events should be understood as a product of the itinerary of certain sectors of the Timorese people during the Indonesian occupation of the territory. We point, that way, to the singular position of the counter-diasporas, former members of the diplomatic front, to whom the Catholic Church (self proclaimed as representative of the "insiders") now opposes. The protests also pointed to a still incipient debate on the building of a national memory, the Catholic Church claiming for a correct acknowledge, by the State, of its own role against the Indonesian occupation.
Mana
Este texto propõe que aspectos relevantes das práticas de cooperação internacional para o desenvo... more Este texto propõe que aspectos relevantes das práticas de cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento são melhor compreendidos à luz do regime da dádiva. Para tanto, confrontam-se dados etnográficos relacionados com o modus operandi do campo da AID em Timor-Leste com os legados de Marcel Mauss e a recente produção do M.A.U.S.S. Indica-se que as políticas internacionais de doação são veículos privilegiados de construção de hegemonia em arenas glocalizadas de negociação, mediante as quais diferentes atores constroem identidades e vínculos de aliança, honra e precedência. Neste debate, sugere-se que a maior contradádiva de Timor-Leste à comunidade internacional seja a de se colocar como um instrumento por meio do qual valores caros aos seus doadores, expressos nos mitos ocidentais de boa sociedade, possam mais uma vez ser cultivados no processo de edificação de um novo Estado-nação.
The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the values that have been mobilized as a source... more The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the values that have been mobilized as a source of political legitimacy in East Timor since the restoration of independence. To do so, it uses as a principal analytical anchor the campaign activities held in the realm of the first round of presidential elections in the country in April 2007. They are placed in perspective through
a comparison with other moments of political conflict. By means of ethnographic observation of electoral phenomenon – rallies, radio and television programs and journalistic coverage – I seek to identify some of the moral and sociological principles on which modern political authority is claimed in the
country by the different groups of its elites. Among other things, I highlight the centrality of the veterans of the Falintil in this field. This fact, associated to the discussion of the public performances of the various candidates during the campaign, is seen as an indicator of the importance that ideas and values such as suffering, recognition and reciprocity occupy in the repertoire
of contemporary East Timorese political culture. I also present a hypothesis about the mechanisms through which the capilarization of modern institutions such as political parties and the Nation State, have taken place in the country: by means of alliances between the cosmopolitan urban elites and local
authorities, mediated by veterans of the resistance.
Key words: East Timor, political culture, elections, recognition, reciprocity
Anthropological Forum, Jan 1, 2010
Revista de Estudos AntiUtilitaristas e …, Jan 1, 2012
This article discusses aspects of the topogenic processes involved in the East Timor nation build... more This article discusses aspects of the topogenic processes involved in the East Timor nation building. Foho (mountains) and Dili are so presented as particular places, devised as products of long-lasting government practices in Timor. Based on the controversies surrounding marriage prestations in the contemporary Dili, the representations projected onto the foho are explored. I argue that the mountains are characterized, among others things, as the loci of "usos e costumes" (customs), of sacred lands and objects, of origin houses, of customary law, and of the ancestors to whom most East Timor people are related and where a series of required rituals are performed to maintain the normal flow of life. As in many other territories that were colonized belatedly, we see in East Timor the urban/rural, town/hinterland oppositions at work which resulted from colonial bifurcate State. While placing such oppositions on a comparative perspective with Oceanic and South Eastern Asian countries, I also claim that they are the base for the politics of custom that have been re-emerged in the postcolonial East Timor.
Virtual Brazilian Anthropology 9.2
This article discusses certain technologies with which government practices are diffused on a g... more This article discusses certain technologies with which government practices
are diffused on a global scale and some of the effects of this process. Using
Foucault as a main source of inspiration, the circulation of know-how and
capital are seen as the principal means by which government practices are
irradiated. By analyzing social techniques such as projects, programs, conditionalities, documents, international laws and others, I argue that these
are fundamental conduits for devising and reproducing the global order.
In a second moment, I approach some of the outcomes of developmental
practices in processes of state building and other political dynamics among
recipients and donor countries. I stress some of the political, economic and
social impacts of local appropriations of development actions. Of these, I emphasize those related to capacity building and what I call the misrecognition
effect. The final remarks propose an articulated perspective on government
practices that are shaped by diverse strategies.
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 14:5, 455-470
In discussing marriage negotiations, this article analyses certain mediations and mediators that ... more In discussing marriage negotiations, this article analyses certain mediations and mediators that make up the dialectics of modernisation among contemporary urban middle-class elites in Timor-Leste. It brings to the fore the way particular Christian
values are strategically used to reproduce, change or even enhance people’s agency regarding customary practices, and to circumscribe the marriage exchanges to the gift
regime. Attitudes about fulfilling customary obligations vary, for they are correlated to the distinct government practices from which they derive. The social profile of brokers and the sources of their legitimacy to perform marriage negotiations are also discussed.
Finally, these negotiations are analysed against the backdrop of contemporary arguments about the syncretic or anti-syncretic character of some social experiences in Timor-Leste.
Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 104. Pp. 123-150, Sep 2014
Este artigo discute certos modos pelos quais o Estado leste‑timorense tem lidado com elementos d... more Este artigo discute certos modos pelos quais o Estado leste‑timorense tem lidado com elementos dos complexos locais de governança, chamados kultura desde o ponto de vista local. A partir da análise de usos recentes do tara bandu e das dinâmicas de estruturação
do poder local, argumento que o reconhecimento e a incorporação de dimensões dos complexos locais de governança têm se dado de modo a transformá‑las em vias para geração de efeitos de pacificação, integração e monopolização do poder. Ao mesmo
tempo, os usos da kultura servem à transposição e internalização de práticas e projetos modernos de organização social e subjetivação. Exploro as críticas à partidarização das eleições locais como um ato de resistência e agência de setores das populações rurais
aos projetos de apropriação política de aspetos de suas dinâmicas de reprodução social pelas elites nacionais baseadas em Díli.
Hatene kona ba Compreender Understanding …, Jan 1, 2010
Lugares, Pessoas e Grupos: as lógicas do …, Jan 1, 2010
Mana, Jan 1, 2008
The article proposes that some of the key practices in the area of international cooperation for ... more The article proposes that some of the key practices in the area of international cooperation for development can be better understood in terms of a gift regime. To this end, it compares ethnographic data relating to the modus operandi of the aid sector in East Timor with the legacy of Marcel Mauss and the recent production of M.A.U.S.S.. International aid policies are shown to be important means for establishing hegemony in negotiation spaces in which different actors construct identities and relations of alliance, honour and precedence. In this debate, it is argued that East Timors biggest countergift to the international community has been to function as an instrument through which values cherished by aid donors, expressed in Western myths of good society, can once again be cultivated in the process of building a new nation state.
Horizontes Antropológicos, Jan 1, 2008
Este texto analisa os conflitos ocorridos em Timor-Leste, em 2005, entre a Igreja católica e o po... more Este texto analisa os conflitos ocorridos em Timor-Leste, em 2005, entre a Igreja católica e o poder executivo, a respeito do caráter a ser atribuído à disciplina de ensino religioso no currículo de ensino primário. Indica-se que os embates que se constituíram ao redor desse tema são expressivos de diferentes projetos para construção do Estado-Nação no país, bem como das disputas entre distintos grupos com relação ao papel desempenhado no processo de conquista da independência. Propõe-se que os eventos sejam compreendidos como produto da trajetória experimentada por certos setores da população no período da ocupação indonésia. Indica-se, assim, a singularidade da posição dos retornados, ex-componentes da frente diplomática da resistência, aos quais se opõe a Igreja católica, que se autodenomina como representante dos de dentro. As manifestações evocaram ainda um incipiente debate sobre a construção de uma memória nacional, pelo que a Igreja católica demandava um correto reconhecimento do Estado diante do papel por ela desempenhado na resistência à ocupação indonésia. Palavras-chave: Estado-Nação, Igreja católica, Timor Leste, reconhecimento.
Performing modernities. Pedagogies and technologies in the making of contemporary Timor-Leste, 2020
This chapter considers strategies for commercializing artifacts aimed at empowering vulnerable po... more This chapter considers strategies for commercializing artifacts aimed at empowering vulnerable populations in Timor-Leste by analyzing the narratives accompanying such practices. We discuss the form and content of shops, product-information folders and labels in order to understand the moralities, meanings and effects that are attributed to buying and selling in particular contexts. We argue that these marketing strategies can potentially turn acts of buying into explicit 'total social facts' (Mauss 2003), by articulating the effects of justice, power, identification, and so on. Moreover, we suggest that narratives introducing artifacts are apparatuses for ascribing their purchase in at least two simultaneous exchange regimes: one based on the market, the other on the gift. The chapter describes the mediations through which such effects are produced.
Performing Modernities. Pedagogies and technologies in the making of contemporary Timor-Leste, 2020
Performing modernities : pedagogies and technologies in the making of contemporary Timor-Leste, 2020
Routledge handbook of contemporary Timor-Leste, edited by Andrew McWilliam and Michael Leach, 2019
This chapter addresses the ways in which customary marriage practices have been carried out and a... more This chapter addresses the ways in which customary marriage practices have been carried out and anxieties projected onto them in urban scenarios of postcolonial Timor-Leste. Based on extensive fieldwork, I argue that the negotiation of marriage practices is frained to meet peoples commitments to local and global institutions and their quest to be perceived as modern folk. To this end, a fundamental claim and strategy is to transform the material exchanges entailed in customary marriage practices into symbols as a specific type of sign (Pierce 1999).
CROSSING HISTORIES AND ETHNOGRAPHIES Following Colonial Historicities in Timor-Leste, edited by Ricardo Roque & Elizabeth Traube, 2019
This chapter addresses a colonial controversy about marriage exchange in 1970s Dili. Retrospectiv... more This chapter addresses a colonial controversy about marriage exchange in 1970s Dili. Retrospectively called after the Portuguese expression guerra do barlaque (barlake war), this controversy came to be considered, by at least one of the actors involved, a foundational event of East Timorese nationalism (Araújo 2012) because it brought to the fore opposing positions about local social life. Not by chance, from the debate marriage exchanges emerged as the most iconic institution of local societies, and its meanings and effects were considered condensed manifestations of the character of the East Timorese people.
The Promise of Prosperity Visions of the Future in Timor-Leste, 2018
This chapter explores the relationship between kultura and Catholicism, addressing discourses and... more This chapter explores the relationship between kultura and Catholicism,
addressing discourses and political projects that respond to the revival
of kultura in Timor-Leste, and examining the perception of some East
Timorese priests that Catholicism is being weakened by this revival.2 From the priests’ perspectives, the relations between kultura and Christianity are associated with conversion to Christianity. They expect that conversion to Christianity implies discontinuity − a break with practices and beliefs in local spiritual agents (cf. Keane 2007). I examine how my interlocutors try to explain the continuity of Timorese people’s commitments to these institutions and their agents. In other words, how they try to make sense of the way in which adherence to Christianity is not effecting (nor, for some, should it effect) discontinuity or rupture. Furthermore, I explore how Catholic clergy attribute the revival of kultura to what they see as a superficial, formalist, passive and low-quality adherence to Catholicism by some Timorese people. Given this fact, some of my interlocutors present projects for purification and monopolisation of faith (Latour 1994) to confront the ‘spiritual ecologies’ (Palmer 2015), which characterise the mystic practices of most people. Nevertheless, not all clergy in Timor Leste agree with these attempts to rid Catholicism of the remnants of customary practices; there is no overall consensus on the appropriate relationship between kultura and Catholicism. There are ranks within the Church that defend the coexistence between kultura and Christianity, arguing in favour of the need for inculturation.
I identify among my interlocutors three distinct projects that shape the
relationship between kultura and Christianity and motivate interactions of clergy with their parishioners: the first, a project for a tactical use
of kultura as a transitory means for the introduction and strengthening of
Christianity; the second, a project that supports an enduring coexistence
and mutual reinforcement of kultura and of Christianity, with some
selectivity; and the third, a project that seeks the extinction of kultura,
because of its supposed incompatibility with Christianity.
The international Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2018
In: Viegas, Susana & Feijó, Rui (ed). Transformations in Independent Timor-Leste: Dynamics of Social and Cultural Cohabitations. Hong Kong: Routledge., 2017
Júlio Aurélio Vianna Lopes ; Paulo Henrique Martins, Alda Lacerda (org) . Dádiva, cultura e sociedade
Based on ethnographic observations from more than ten years of research in East Timor, we explore... more Based on ethnographic observations from more than ten years of research in East Timor, we explore the idea that being in debt is an important part of the constitution of person amongst Timorese people, as opposed to the category of slave - those who are not in a condition to be in debt to others. Focusing on debts established primarily, but not exclusively, through marriage exchanges, we argue that the value of personhood is strongly linked to an expanded network of relations. More than the notion of "person", the very notion of "relationship" is established through debts. In this sense, we propose the dissolution of the dichotomy between exchange and debts, analyzing debts as an important part of exchange regimes in East Timor.
Sara Niner (ed) Women and the politics of gender in post-conflict Timor-Leste. Between heaven and earth
In: Juliana Braz Dias e Andrea Lobo (org.) Africa em Movimento. ABA Publicações, 2012
Introdução do livro Ita maun alin… o livro do irmão mais novo : afinidades antropológicas em torn... more Introdução do livro Ita maun alin… o livro do irmão mais novo : afinidades antropológicas em torno de Timor-Leste.
Ita maun alin… o livro do irmão mais novo : afinidades antropológicas em torno de Timor-Leste / org. Kelly Silva, Lúcio Sousa. Lisboa, Colibri. p.21-28
Apoios: IELT /CEMRI
Vibrent - Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 2024
This dossier brings together articles by anthropologists affiliated with universities in Argentin... more This dossier brings together articles by anthropologists affiliated with universities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Norway and the United States who have devoted their efforts to conducting ethnographic engagements of otherness that generates discomfort within a tradition of citizen anthropology consolidated in Latin America. We are talking about military personnel, police officers, vigilantes, imprisoned criminals, as well as small shop owners, professionals, and politicians who are sympathetic to and militate for the right and far right, all of whom are the protagonists of the articles that compose this dossier. At an historic moment of global and local reorganisation of powerful political, economic and religious vectors that affirm solid arguments against human rights, criticise scientific and university production, and legitimise violent and authoritarian practices against minorities, we ask ourselves: what happens to the way of producing knowledge in anthropology when we interact with subjects who are associated with the violation of human rights? Is it possible to expand the description of ideologies and practices of people with whom we do not share an ethical horizon? What happens to ethnography when we take on these subjects? Does the ethnographer suffer any moral contamination? Can we problematise the legal system that forces us to classify and oppose victims and aggressors? Is it possible to go beyond this system to address the social nuances, ways of life, moral regimes, systems of thought, and political and economic practices of people who criticise the egalitarian, progressive social ideal What ethical implications does such an expansion of the horizon of understanding entail for anthropology?
En este artículo presentamos un somero resumen sobre los acontecimientos ocurridos en Timor-Leste... more En este artículo presentamos un somero resumen sobre los acontecimientos ocurridos en Timor-Leste durante el año 2020. Analizamos el desarrollo y conclusión de la crisis de gobierno que venía arrastrándose desde la formación del VIII Gobierno constitucional, así como algunos de los desafíos de gestión a los que éste ha tenido que enfrentarse. Hacemos especial hincapié en los impactos socioeconómicos que la pandemia de la covid-19 ha tenido sobre el país y sus habitantes. En un año en el que no ha habido noticias excesivamente reseñables en materia de política internacional acerca de Timor-Leste, la seguridad humana en sus diferentes aspectos se ha convertido en el aspecto central a considerar.
The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2020
This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building ... more This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building in Timor-Leste. We deploy two sets of empirical data to analyse the role ambiguity plays in particular power dynamics: the East Timorese legislation on community authority, and ethnographic descriptions of a local form of conflict resolution at the village level. The ethnographic analysis points to the fact that local authorities see themselves and are seen by villagers as state representatives. However, the legal framework may be seen as an effort by the Timorese national authority to detach itself from local leaders, but it does so ambiguously. While the state positions local authorities as community representatives of the people it also assigns them an increasing number of functions over time, many of which would be elsewhere considered state responsibilities. We argue that this ambiguity plays a vital role in a long-term strategy to legitimise the state by appropriating local elements of political culture. That being so, local governance complexes are used to transpose and internalise modern practices and projects of social organisation and subjectivation, although they tend to be considered by many as longstanding cultural institutions. K E Y W O R D S development, law/human rights, local governance, politics, social change
Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 2012
The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, we explore the extent to which certain practices in ... more The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, we explore the extent to which certain practices in urban East Timor perceived as traditional may be associated to different ways of negotiating individual and collective identities while uncovering dilemmas of nation building and state formation. To this effect, we take into account specific variations of current practices in marriage negotiations in Dili, considering their structural role in forging local sociality. Based on repeated field trips, we contend that different discourses about "tradition" can be related to different ways in which one is positioned vis-à-vis the multiple symbolic elements available in current East-Timorese public spaces. As these different meanings of "tradition" also challenge public policies, their application may uncover different ideas about what a nation ought to be. Second, we ponder on the extent to which our specific focus is due to our background as Brazilian anthropologists, buil...
Pro-Posições, 2012
Este trabalho discute, a partir de uma perspectiva etnográfica, tendências e tensões característi... more Este trabalho discute, a partir de uma perspectiva etnográfica, tendências e tensões características da sociabilidade de estudantes africanos - vindos de países de língua oficial portuguesa - na Universidade de Brasília (UnB) e na Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Abordamos os modos pelos quais eles experimentam as práticas linguísticas e pedagógicas das universidades, vivenciam as tensões raciais existentes no Brasil, atribuem sentido aos espaços urbanos nos quais são acolhidos; e analisamos seus padrões mais comuns de interação e agregação. Sugerimos que o tempo de participação no fluxo migratório, a nacionalidade de origem dos estudantes e a cidade de acolhida no Brasil são variáveis que condicionam de forma importante a sociabilidade dos estudantes. Residualmente, e de forma ainda incipiente, exploramos algumas dinâmicas de identificação entre os alunos. Alguns se apresentam como sujeitos em diáspora. Outros, contudo, chamam atenção para a necessidade de continuarem a ser reconhe...
Cadernos de arte e antropologia, 2015
Este dossiê vem à luz com o objetivo de figurar como um espaço de análise e reflexão multidiscipl... more Este dossiê vem à luz com o objetivo de figurar como um espaço de análise e reflexão multidisciplinar sobre produções artísticas em e sobre Timor-Leste. Não obstante, o fato de ser concebido por dois antropólogos impõe suas marcas. No âmbito deste ensaio e como provocação introdutória aos leitores interessados no tema, esboçamos algumas questões teórico-metodológicas que nos parecem necessárias, desde a antropologia, para um pensamento crítico sobre arte em e sobre Timor-Leste. Discutimos perspectivas possíveis para a abordagem do mundo das artes em e sobre Timor-Leste, articulando-as, na medida do possível, com os artigos que compõe esse dossiê 3. Ancorados no preceito de que a emergência de campos artísticos (BOURDIEU, 1983; 1996) é um processo histórico complexo e de longa duração, explicitamos algumas mediações classificatórias e institucionais que se fazem presentes em Timor-Leste, bem como em outras fronteiras sociopolíticas, para suas gestações. Nesse sentido, indicamos como a invenção dos mundos das artes está relacionada aos processos de invenção, transposição e subversão da modernidade. Tais processos, por sua vez, estão umbilicalmente ligados à construção dos Estados colonial e pós-colonial. Como consequência, destacamos a dependência do campo de produção artística de outros campos e ação social, e explicitamos alguns episódios que marcam a genealogia colonial de produção das artes indígenas e populares no então Timor Português. Convidamos os leitores a engajarem-se na produção de etnografias das mediações classificatórios e institucionais implicadas na construção de campos artísticos no Timor-Leste contemporâneo, trazendo ao texto atores que têm protagonizado tais fenômenos. Exploramos também o potencial analítico da perspectiva agentiva, concebida por Alfred Gell (1988), na análise do que, desde uma perspectiva interétnica, podem ser reconhecidas como manifestações artística leste-timorenses. Nesse contexto, trazemos ao ensaio a problemática do paralelismo semântico
Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 2003
As condições de colonização portuguesa [...] na Ásia, como no Brasil, nas ilhas do Atlântico e at... more As condições de colonização portuguesa [...] na Ásia, como no Brasil, nas ilhas do Atlântico e até certo ponto na África, desenvolveram nos homens as mesmas qualidades essenciais de cordialidade e simpatia, características do povo português-o mais cristão dos colonizadores modernos nas suas relações com as gentes consideradas inferiores [...].
Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 2012
This article discusses certain technologies with which government practices are diffused on a glo... more This article discusses certain technologies with which government practices are diffused on a global scale and some of the effects of this process. Using Foucault as a main source of inspiration, the circulation of know-how and capital are seen as the principal means by which government practices are irradiated. By analyzing social techniques such as projects, programs, conditionalities, documents, international laws and others, I argue that these are fundamental conduits for devising and reproducing the global order. In a second moment, I approach some of the outcomes of developmental practices in processes of state building and other political dynamics among recipients and donor countries. I stress some of the political, economic and social impacts of local appropriations of development actions. Of these, I emphasize those related to capacity building and what I call the misrecognition effect. The final remarks propose an articulated perspective on government practices that are sh...
Anuario Asia Pacífico, 2021
En este artículo presentamos un somero resumen sobre los acontecimientos ocurridos en Timor-Leste... more En este artículo presentamos un somero resumen sobre los acontecimientos ocurridos en Timor-Leste durante el año 2020. Analizamos el desarrollo y conclusión de la crisis de gobierno que venía arrastrándose desde la formación del VIII Gobierno constitucional, así como algunos de los desafíos de gestión a los que éste ha tenido que enfrentarse. Hacemos especial hincapié en los impactos socioeconómicos que la pandemia de la covid-19 ha tenido sobre el país y sus habitantes. En un año en el que no ha habido noticias excesivamente reseñables en materia de política internacional acerca de Timor- Leste, la seguridad humana en sus diferentes aspectos se ha convertido en el aspecto central a considerar.
The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2020
This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building ... more This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building in Timor-Leste. We deploy two sets of empirical data to analyse the role ambiguity plays in particular power dynamics: the East Timorese legislation on community authority, and ethnographic descriptions of a local form of conflict resolution at the village level. The ethnographic analysis points to the fact that local authorities see themselves and are seen by villagers as state representatives. However, the legal framework may be seen as an effort by the Timorese national authority to detach itself from local leaders, but it does so ambiguously. While the state positions local authorities as community representatives of the people it also assigns them an increasing number of functions over time, many of which would be elsewhere considered state responsibilities. We argue that this ambiguity plays a vital role in a long-term strategy to legitimise the state by appropriating local elements of political culture. That being so, local governance complexes are used to transpose and internalise modern practices and projects of social organisation and subjectivation, although they tend to be considered by many as longstanding cultural institutions. K E Y W O R D S development, law/human rights, local governance, politics, social change
This paper addresses current attempts to manage ritual practices by the national state and the Ca... more This paper addresses current attempts to manage ritual practices by the national state and the Catholic Church in East Timor. Based on the analysis of official propaganda, interviews and other documents, it points out how certain rationale about what is deemed the correct disposal of material resources has come to be a matter of government concern. One proposes to consider such government endeavors as purification efforts as Bruno Latour has depicted it. In addition, by discussing the arguments framing the government practices towards local practices of reproduction, one highlights how the later are perceived in opposition to the development as utopia and ideology. However, from the point of view of ordinary people no development – whatever it comes to be – can be reached without honor ritual obligations.
Resumo: Este trabalho discute, a partir de uma perspectiva etnográfica, tendências e tensões cara... more Resumo: Este trabalho discute, a partir de uma perspectiva etnográfica, tendências e tensões características da sociabilidade de estudantes africanos -vindos de países de língua oficial portuguesa -na Universidade de Brasília (UnB) e na Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Abordamos os modos pelos quais eles experimentam as práticas linguísticas e pedagógicas das universidades, vivenciam as tensões raciais existentes no Brasil, atribuem sentido aos espaços urbanos nos quais são acolhidos; e analisamos seus padrões mais comuns de interação e agregação. Sugerimos que o tempo de participação no fluxo migratório, a nacionalidade de origem dos estudantes e a cidade de acolhida no Brasil são variáveis que condicionam de forma importante a sociabilidade dos estudantes. Residualmente, e de forma ainda incipiente, exploramos algumas dinâmicas de identificação entre os alunos. Alguns se apresentam como sujeitos em diáspora. Outros, contudo, chamam atenção para a necessidade de continuarem a ser reconhecidos como estrangeiros. A maioria demonstra surpresa em se ver percebido como negro ou africano, simplesmente. Os estudantes vêm para o Brasil mediante o Programa Estudante Convênio de Graduação (PEC-G), um acordo diplomático que facilita o deslocamento do aluno ao nosso país a fim de realizar seu curso de nível superior.
Série Antropologia, Jan 1, 2006
Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia, vol. 4(1), 2015
The connection between art, agency and power effects in East Timor is an epistemological equation... more The connection between art, agency and power effects in East Timor is an epistemological equation that entails interdisciplinary approaches. Departing from
an anthropological perspective, this introduction seeks to map potential methodological and theoretical questions for discussing such equation. One also outlines
registers and historical and contemporary genealogies of artistic practices in order to suggest clues and challenges to be pursued by further studies in the area. The analysis of the articles which this dossier is made up of allows to discuss the developmentof political appropriation of art by various actors, revealing the emergence of new orientalisms and mediation processes, both local and international, in the making of art worlds in East Timor.
Buka hatene, Compreender , Mengerti, Understanding Timor-Leste
This paper addresses a colonial controversy about marriage exchanges in 1970s Dili. Retrospective... more This paper addresses a colonial controversy about marriage exchanges in 1970s Dili. Retrospectively called "a guerra do barlaque," (the barlake war) this controversy has been considered a foundational event of East Timorese nationalism (Araújo 2012) as it brought to the fore opposing positions about local sociality and the ways such a sociality should be respected or managed for civilizational purposes. Not by chance, the acknowledgment of the marriage exchanges as the most iconic institution of the local sociality was at stake and their meanings and effects were considered condensed manifestations of the character of the East Timorese people. According to Abilio Araújo (personal communication), the public debate on the issue in the 1970s was the basis for the emergence of the Maubere as the political symbol of national pride and independence in East Timor because the controversy provoked people to develop, for the first time, a systematic and positive approach to local institutions. The fact that people like Abilio Araújo, Nicolau Lobato and Xavier do Amaral were protagonists in the controversy also gives these events a special flavor since they came to be leading figures in East Timorese nationalism.
Anuário Antropológico 2013, n. 39 (1)
The diverse moral regimes related to the payment/transfer/offering of marriage prestations among ... more The diverse moral regimes related to the payment/transfer/offering of marriage prestations among Timorese elites based in the capital of Dili are explored along with the controversies surrounding them. These marriage exchanges are devices for social differentiation and the distinct configurations of marriage prestations reflect the way Dili inhabitants conflate attempts to make themselves modern people with commitments to indigenous institutions. Such phenomena are considered the products of long standing collective and individual negotiations which combine principles of sociality common amongst Timorese and others in Eastern Indonesia and the colonial and post-colonial State.
The diverse moral regimes related to the payment/transfer/offering of marriage prestations among ... more The diverse moral regimes related to the payment/transfer/offering of marriage prestations among Timorese elites based in the capital of Dili are explored along with the controversies surrounding them. These marriage exchanges are devices for social differentiation and the distinct configurations of marriage prestations reflect the way Dili inhabitants conflate attempts to make themselves modern people with commitments to indigenous institutions. Such phenomena are considered the products of long standing collective and individual negotiations which combine principles of sociality common amongst Timorese and others in Eastern Indonesia and the colonial and post-colonial State.
Special Issue Arte, agência e efeitos de poder em Timor-Leste / Art, agency and power effects in ... more Special Issue Arte, agência e efeitos de poder em Timor-Leste /
Art, agency and power effects in East Timor.
Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia , Vol. 4, No 1 | 2015
Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, Dec 2008
Vibrant, 2012
The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, we explore the extent to which certain practices in ... more The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, we explore the extent to which certain practices in urban East Timor perceived as traditional may be associated to different ways of negotiating individual and collective identities while uncovering dilemmas of nation building and state formation. To this effect, we take into account specific variations of current practices in marriage negotiations in Dili, considering their structural role in forging local sociality. Based on repeated field trips, we contend that different discourses about "tradition" can be related to different ways in which one is positioned vis-à-vis the multiple symbolic elements available in current East-Timorese public spaces. As these different meanings of "tradition" also challenge public policies, their application may uncover different ideas about what a nation ought to be. Second, we ponder on the extent to which our specific focus is due to our background as Brazilian anthropologists, built around our dialogue with certain anthropological lines of analysis in Brazil, particularly those related to interethnic friction and the place of indigenous peoples in the national imagination, as well as those dedicated to such themes as cultural diversity, citizenship, and public policies in urban Brazil.