Dead as Ancestors, Martyrs, and Heroes in Timor-Leste

Lia Kent is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University. Rui Graça Feijó is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, and Associate Researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History, NOVA University of Lisbon.

"It is hard to find flaws in this collection. Admirably meeting the attributes of 'thick ethnography' as set down by Traube in her preface, not only does this work advance our understanding of Timor-Leste’s travails today, but deservedly takes its place in the broader anthropological literature around 'ancestorship,' martyrdom, and 'bad death.'"- Geoffrey C. Gunn, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 95, No. 2

• Preface. (Elizabeth Traube) Introduction: Martyrs, Ancestors and Heroes: The Multiple Lives of Dead Bodies in Independent Timor-Leste. (Lia Kent and Rui Graca Feijo) PART I: Ancestors, Martyrs and Heroes Chapter 1. Ancestors and Martyrs in Timor-Leste. (Susana de Matos Viegas) Chapter 2. Remembering the Martyrs of National Liberation in Timor-Leste. (Michael Leach) PART II: The Dead in Everyday Life Chapter 3. Spirits Live Among Us: Mythology, the Hero's Journey and the Supernatural World in a Community in Atauro. (Alessandro Boarccaech) Chapter 4. 'Sempre la'o ho ita': Ancestral Omnipotence and the Protection of the Living in Timor-Leste. (Bronwyn Winch) Chapter 5. Unfulfilled Peace: Death and the Limits of Liberalism in Timor-Leste. (Damian Grenfell) Chapter 6. The Politics of Loss and Restoration: Massive Bad Death in the Oecussi Highlands. (Victoria K. Sakti) Chapter 7. Death Across the Border and the Prospects of Improved People to People Relationships. (Andrey Damaledo) Chapter 8. Working for the Living and the Dead: Challenges Associated with Personal Identification from Skeletal Remains in Timor-Leste. (Soren Blau) PART III: The Dead and the Nation-State Chapter 9. Remembering the Dead in Post-Independence Timor-Leste: Victims or Martyrs? (Amy Rothschild) Chapter 10. Gender, Agency and the (In)Visibility of the Dead and the Wounded. (Henri Myrttinen) Chapter 11. On the Politics of Memory: Cult of Martyrs, Contested Memories and Social Status. (Rui Graca Feijo) Chapter 12. Gathering the Dead, Imagining the State? Examining the Work of Commissions for the Recovery of Human Remains. (Lia Kent) Chapter 13. Selling Names: The 'Material Dimension' of State Recognition of Martyrs in Timor-Leste. (Kate Roll) Index