Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface: The Dead, the State, and the People in Timor-Leste
- Introduction: Martyrs, Ancestors and Heroes: The Multiple Lives of Dead Bodies in Independent Timor-Leste
- Part I Ancestors, Martyrs and Heroes
- Part II The Dead in Everyday Life
- PART III The Dead and the Nation-State
- Index
3 - Spirits Live Among Us: Mythology, the Hero’s Journey, and the Supernatural World in a Community in Ataúro
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface: The Dead, the State, and the People in Timor-Leste
- Introduction: Martyrs, Ancestors and Heroes: The Multiple Lives of Dead Bodies in Independent Timor-Leste
- Part I Ancestors, Martyrs and Heroes
- Part II The Dead in Everyday Life
- PART III The Dead and the Nation-State
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter analyses the relationship between beliefs in the spirits of nature and the dead and the conception of hero among the Humangili, a community located in Ataúro Island, Timor-Leste. For this purpose I discuss the concept of culture, the influence of Lisan, the notion of person, the symbolism of the given name, the meaning of physical death, the hierarchical system, the relationship between soul and body, and the impacts of adopting Christianity, while also presenting local stories and myths, the journey of the Humangili's hero, the notion of order and social stability, as well as the perceptions about the supernatural world and its influence in the world of the living. Overall, the ideas about the meaning of hero are part of a complex system that contributes to the maintenance of dominant narratives about local customs, cosmogonies, values and hierarchies, the perception of individual and collective identity, and the feeling of stability and social unity.
Keywords: heroes’ journey, notion of person, soul and body, mythology, world of the dead, Ataúro
In the cosmogony of the Humangili, a community located on the island of Ataúro in Timor-Leste, there is continuity between the living world and the world inhabited by the spirits of nature and ancestors. Physical death does not correspond to the end of individual existence, but only marks the separation between the immortal soul and the perennial and transient body. The Isik Runguk – the soul located in the head – once free from the body, can assume different forms and incorporate itself into other beings. One of the mythemes of the Humangili mythology is the belief that spirits maintain contact and interfere with people's lives and the social dynamics of the community. Its all-embracing influence can be noted, for example, in curing diseases, in the intensity of rain, in conflict resolution, in the results of harvests and fish catches, in dreams, and in punishments for transgressions. Based on these premises, in this essay I aim to investigate some of the possible points of contact between the belief in spirits of nature and ancestors and the meaning of the hero among the Humangili.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Dead as Ancestors, Martyrs, and Heroes in Timor-Leste , pp. 91 - 114Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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