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Lulik encounters and cultural frictions in East Timor: Past and present
Author(s) -
McWilliam Andrew,
Palmer Lisa,
Shepherd Christopher
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the australian journal of anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1757-6547
pISSN - 1035-8811
DOI - 10.1111/taja.12101
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , context (archaeology) , set (abstract data type) , lingua franca , sociology , resistance (ecology) , epistemology , aesthetics , history , linguistics , philosophy , social science , computer science , archaeology , ecology , biology , programming language
In the East Timorese lingua franca, Tetun, the word lulik is often simply translated as ‘sacred’ or ‘forbidden’. But the concept has much wider application as a set of fundamental, philosophical and moral orientations in Timorese social life. In this paper we present six historical and contemporary encounters with lulik , by a range of outsiders from beyond the Timorese tradition. Placed in the context of Sahlin's notion of ‘the structure of the conjuncture’, they illustrate the way lulik agency adapts to novel or contingent events in culturally inflected ways, and how ideas of lulik may be configured as agents of resistance as well as enabling strategies.