Narratives of Atauro: What Oral Tradition Tells us About the History of an Island
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53930/348523Keywords:
Atauro, Territory, Island, Narratives, Myths, Ancient occupations, Water resources, Borassus flabelliferAbstract
The territory of the island of Atauro, in Timor Leste, has been in the past the subject of internal conflicts between the three dialectal groups that compose the population, revealing the difficult life conditions on an island with limited water resources. The narratives about places given by the inhabitants allow us to understand the representations of the island space and to formulate some hypotheses on its settlement. The article explores the mythology of the birth of the island, the creative opposition of the elder and younger brothers, and the mentions of other populations that were annihilated or conquered, all of which are embodied in the landscape that supports the stories. These stories reveal the alternation of insular unity and singularity, the fickleness of ancient alliances and the centrality that the inhabitants give to their island, a microcosm of the world.
Downloads
References
Barraud, C. (2015). Parenté, alliance, maisons dans l’Est insulindien: l’école néerlandaise et sa postérité critique. Archipel 90, pp. 217-244. https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.377
Bourke, R. M. (2009). The history of agriculture in Papua New Guinea. In R. M. Bourke, & T. Harwood (Eds.), Food and agriculture in Papua New Guinea. Canberra ANU Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/FAPNG.08.2009
Clark, M., & May, S. K. (2013). Understanding the Macassans: A Regional Approach. In M. Clark, & S. K. May (Eds.), Macassan History and Heritage; Journeys, Encounters and Influences. ANU Press, Canberra: 1-19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fgjzc.3 https://doi.org/10.22459/MHH.06.2013.01
Ely, K. S. (2009). Geochronology of Timor-Leste and seism-tectonics of the southern Banda Arc. PhD thesis, Science - Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne. https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/35296/252610_Atauro_09A3.pdf?sequence=3
Fox, J. J. (1977). Harvest of the Palm, Ecological Change in Eastern Indonesia. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674331884
Friedberg, C. (1979). James J. Fox, Harvest of the Palm, Ecological Change in Eastern Indonesia. Archipel 17, pp. 202-207.
Galipaud, J. C. (2015). Réseaux néolithiques, nomades marins et marchands dans les petites îles de la Sonde. Archipel 90, pp. 49-74. https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.367
Galipaud J. C., Guillaud D., & Kinaston R. (2016). Aleti Tunu Bibi: Contextualizing a New Rock Art Site in East Timor and the Wider Asia-Pacific Region. Asian Perspectives, Vol. 55, pp. 128-147. https://doi.org/10.1353/asi.2016.0016
Guillaud, D. (2015). Le vivrier et le sacré. Systèmes agricoles, rituels et territoires dans l’Est indonésien et à Timor-Leste. Archipel 90, pp. 245-274. https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.379
Guillaud, D., Emperaire, L., & Bustamante, P. (2013). Heritage, Agro-Biodiversity and the Local Populations: Some Examples from the Use of Palm-Trees in East Timor. In H. Loney et al. (Eds.), Understanding Timor-Leste 2013, vol. II. Dili: TLSA, pp. 183-189.
Leite de Magalhães, A. (1916). A Ilha de Atauro. Noticia sobre a ilha e seus habitantes, seguida de vocabulário. Macau: Mercantil de N. T. Fernandes et Filhos, pp. 1-39.
Schapper, A. (2015). Wallacea, a Linguistic Area. Archipel 90, pp. 99-151. https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.371
Vischer, M. P. (2006). Precedence Among the Domains of the Three Hearth Stones: Contestation of an order of precedence in the Ko'a ceremonial cycle (Palu'é Island, Eastern Indonesia). In J. J. Fox, & C. Sather (Eds.), Origins, Ancestry and Alliance; Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography. Canberra: ANU Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/OAA.10.2006.09
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Dominique Guillaud
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
