Since 1999, communities across Timor-Leste have been engaged in what some
observers have described as a ‘resurgence of custom’1
(Hicks 2007). This
resurgence is most vividly associated with the rebuilding of sacred ancestral
houses (Tetun: uma lulik), which were destroyed, abandoned or fell into
disrepair during the course of the Indonesian military invasion and occupation.
The reconstruction of these social and symbolic structures has occurred hand
in hand with numerous other processes of restoration and renewal including: a
return to settlements of ‘origin’ after years of displacement; the physical and/
or symbolic laying to rest of the dead and disappeared at ancestral burial sites;
and renewed participation in communal ceremonies and rituals associated
with the agricultural calendar. The time, effort and resources entailed in these
rituals of return and renewal suggest that such actions are more than a simple
reaffirmation of self-esteem following centuries of foreign domination. They
involve the rearticulation of distinct forms of sociality structured around
networks of kinship and alliance, closely tied to specific claims to land and
access to natural resources (Bovensiepen 2009; Fitzpatrick and Barnes 2010;
McWilliam 2006, 2007, 2008; Meitzner Yoder 2005; Palmer 2007).