http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3243-2567
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Abstract
This article examines the impact of the Tasi Mane oil infrastructure project, launched in 2011 by the national company Timor Gap, for implementation in local communities in the Covalima district. We focus on how the processes of land expropriation for infrastructure development and of financial compensation offered to the inhabitants has affected people’s relationship with their land and existing customary practices. Highlighting the difficulties of moving from a communal to an individual ownership regime, the prospect of compensation and the redistribution of land has exacerbated existing land conflicts and generated new identity strategies. However, the rapid process of modernisation does not simply diminish some customary practices; instead, ritual practices are creatively adapted to respond to the changing situation. In the face of rapid social and land use changes, the rituals gaining prominence are those that reinforce relations with the ancestors and connections with particular sacred sites.
ORCID
Dominique Guillaud http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3243-2567
Notes
1 This work is the result of several field visits, as well as Crespi’s eleven-month immersion in the district of Covalima between 2014 and 2017.
2 In 2015, Holbelis had 1,140 inhabitants (Direksaun Jeral de Estatistika Citation2015). The three hamlets aggregated in Holbelis are Mukbelis, Roek and Bonuk; they are part of the village (suco) of Labarai.
3 In 2015, Fatisin had 1,417 inhabitants (Direksaun Jeral de Estatistika Citation2015). Besides Fatisin, Kamanasa is also comprised of three other hamlets: Sanfuk, Maneikin and Ai-Lo’ok Laran (3,681 inhabitants in total).
4 None of our informants could explain what the ‘10 per cent’ referred to. Most residents reverted to choosing the option of immediate monetary compensation after hearing about the defection of the Hyundai operator.
5 Each tree (coconut, mango, etc.) was estimated at $60 USD per tree, $25 for marungui (Moringa oleifera), and $25 for betel palm (Areca catechu). Moringa leaves and fruits are common vegetables. Betel nut, along with betel leaf and lime, make up the betel quid; it has high customary value due its use in all ceremonies. Crops like corn were compensated at the rate of 15 cents per plant. Electric poles installed in fields encroaching upon settlements were also compensated at the rate of 50 kg of rice and $250 USD for each pole.
6 Corypha utan denotes a palm tree that provides sago pith for consumption, fibers for basketry, and occasionally wine. While the háli or banyans have no food use, their special spiritual significance sees them mark the central area of many Tetun villages.
7 As is common in other parts of Southeast Asia, Timorese societies are organised into houses; these are both buildings and refer to groups of people who are said to share a common origin; they are also an essential part of the ways in which alliances are formed and houses or sub-houses tend to be the main units of exchange (for a comprehensive review of this complex concept, see Barraud Citation2015; Howell and Sparkes Citation2013; Carsten and Hugh-Jones Citation1995).
8 This right is supposedly written in the constitution (Article 54, ‘Regime Especial Para a Definição da Titularidade de Bens Imóveis’). However, even though the government representatives have repeatedly referred to this right, it raises a question of interpretation because the aforementioned article does not quote this right in an open and obvious manner. The wording of the article is ambiguous because it proposes ‘the clarification of property belonging to the domain of the State […] that can be distributed to those who otherwise do not have access to the land’.
9 The council of the elders, or tesilia in Tetun, are the ‘judges’ or ‘mediators’ of the village, dealing with conflicts which they try to appease. The tesilia are skilled lia-nain, ritual authorities who have specialised knowledge about the ancestral past.
10 Bats (niki) are also called fetoran, which informants translated as ‘virgin’ in Tetun, since it is believed that young people who die unmarried become bats.
11 Traditional justice in a land conflict is as follows: the two opponents sit together and say, Si hau mak sala, hau mak mate, ita mak sala, ita mak mate! (‘If I am wrong, I will die, but if you are wrong, you will die!’) They shake hands and wait for the other to perish. One has to be sure of one’s case to stand such an ordeal, and Dais refused to do so.
12 At a rather indefinite point in the past, the Tetun ruler of Kamanasa had made an agreement with Bunaq people from the mountains, inviting them to come and settle on the coast; this move seemed linked to trade and to the collection of commodities from the mountains (sandalwood, wax and honey).
13 See also Cryan (Citation2015a, 146), who states that among local communities, land conflicts between neighbours were considered a relatively minor issue compared to the threat of land grabs by the state.
14 During the ceremony of the ‘first fruits of corn’, Gop Garai in Bunaq, Asau Batar in Tetun, the community gathered around the noble and royal houses in an order that reflected the political and social hierarchy of the village. Each man had to bring a specific number of corncobs, depending on the status of his house, which were then collectively consumed.
15 For local communities, a lack of respect for anything invested with lulik (equivalent to sacredness) can entail misfortune and fateful events (cf. Bovensiepen and Delgado Rosa Citation2016).
16 The Bunaq altars, consisting of a platform of stones, are frequently built on the ancient habitat sites.
17 During Indonesian times, monetary exchanges were rather frequent, but involved small amounts (e.g. market purchases). After 2000, the United Nations injected more money into the economy in the form of aid and wages.
18 Crocodiles are the totemic animals of the Tetum kingdoms (Hägerdal Citation2012) and are associated with ancestors, as Kamanasa origin accounts also indicate. The planned reserves cover two small current mangrove zones, enclosed between the supply base and the port facilities.