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‘It was all about independence’: loss, division and rejuvenation amongst the East Timorese in Melbourne
Author(s) -
Askland Hedda Haugen
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.12107
Subject(s) - habitus , sociology , identity (music) , independence (probability theory) , gender studies , field (mathematics) , homeland , feeling , collective identity , divergence (linguistics) , media studies , political science , social science , aesthetics , politics , social psychology , law , cultural capital , psychology , philosophy , statistics , linguistics , mathematics , pure mathematics
In this article I explore some of the changes that have occurred in the East‐Timorese community in Melbourne following independence. The focus of the paper is on the process of identification and how there has been a move from a collective identity towards social identity. Through contemporary anthropological conceptualisations of (collective) identity and Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and social field, I explore how divergence in pre‐independence activism has led to parallel experiences of lost community and renewed feelings of belonging, and how the community is gradually moving from a focus on the homeland towards an emphasis on the community in exile.