Ricardo Roque and Lúcio Sousa, 2019.
This chapter explores archaeological knowledge, scientific authority, and indigenous power at the crossroads of colonial interactions mediated by East Timorese ancestral objects-ancient stones in particular. It concentrates on a singular event in the colonial past: the exhibition to the Portuguese of ancient sacred heritage from the house of Soko Lai Mau Besi of Afaloicai by their authorized indigenous keepers. On 3 O September 1957, a small group of East Timorese men from a secluded hamlet some miles away arrived ceremoniously at the Baguia Posto to meet with the administrator Victor Santa and his guest, Portuguese anthropologist António de Almeida.
Full citation: R. Roque e L. Sousa, “The Stones of Afaloicai: colonial archaeology and the authority of ancient objects”, in R. Roque e E.Traube, ed., Crossing Histories and Ethnographies: Following Colonial Historicities in Timor-Leste, New York, Berghahn, 2019, pp. 203-238.
Berghahn Books
Ask copy to author: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/39787
