The Dead as Ancestors, Martyrs, and Heroes in Timor-Leste / / ed. by Lia Kent, Rui Feijo.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• MitwirkendeR: Blau, Soren,; Boarccaech, Alessandro,; Damaledo, Andrey,; Graça Feijó, Rui,; Grenfell, Damian,; Kent, Lia,; Kumala Sakti, Victoria,; Leach, Michael,; Matos Viegas, Susana de,; Myrttinen, Henri,; Roll, Kate,; Rothschild, Amy,; Traube, Elizabeth G.,; Winch, Bronwyn,
• HerausgeberIn: Feijo, Rui,; Kent, Lia,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (326 p.)

During the 24-year Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste, thousands of people died or were killed in circumstances that did not allow the required death rituals to be performed at the time. Since the country attained independence in 1999, families have consequently devoted significant time, effort and resources to fulfilling their obligations to the dead. These obligations are accorded particular significance due to the fact that the dead are ascribed agency and can play a benevolent or malevolent role in the lives of the living. Such grassroots initiatives run in parallel with, and reveal a range of different attitudes towards, official initiatives that seek to transform particular dead bodies into public symbols of heroism, sacrifice and nationhood. This book focuses on the dynamic interplay between the potent presence of the dead in everyday life and their symbolic usefulness in wider processes of state and nation formation.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part I Ancestors, Martyrs and Heroes -- 1 Ancestors and Martyrs in Timor-Leste -- 2 Remembering the Martyrs of National Liberation in Timor-Leste -- Part II The Dead in Everyday Life -- 3 Spirits Live Among Us -- 4 ‘Sempre la’o ho ita’ -- 5 Unfulfilled Peace -- 6 The Politics of Loss and Restoration -- 7 Death Across the Border and the Prospects of Improved People to People Relationships -- 8 Working for the Living and the Dead -- PART III The Dead and the Nation-State -- 9 Remembering the Dead in Post-Independence Timor-Leste -- 10 Gender, Agency and the (In)Visibility of the Dead and the Wounded -- 11 On the Politics of Memory -- 12 Gathering the Dead, Imagining the State? -- 13 Selling Names -- Index