[TimorLesteStudies] Publication: Harbouring Traditions in East Timor: Marginality in a Lowland Entrepôt
Jennifer Drysdale
jenster at cres10.anu.edu.au
Fri Oct 12 11:15:00 EST 2007
Harbouring Traditions in East Timor: Marginality in a Lowland Entrepôt
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ANDREW McWILLIAM
Department of Anthropology, Research School of
Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National
University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia Email:
<mailto:andrew.mcwilliam at anu.edu.au>andrew.mcwilliam at anu.edu.au
Modern Asian Studies (2007), 41: 1113-1143 Cambridge University Press
Abstract
Drawing on the literature of networks and
marginality, this paper explores the social
history of the small trading port of Com on the
northeast coast of Timor. Com's marginality, as I
define it, is constituted as a remote outpost of
inter-island and trans-local trade networks of
the Indonesian archipelago, and reproduced in its
contemporary isolation from centres of economic
power and processes of the global market. The
paper draws on narrative traditions and
documentary evidence to chart Com's fluctuating
historical fortunes and contemporary cultural
practices. In the fragile post-independence
environment of Timor Leste, the resident
population of Com is once again looking towards a
creative engagement with external others in the hope of renewed prosperity.
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Jenny Drysdale
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Email Jennifer.Drysdale at anu.edu.au
Personal Website http://cres.anu.edu.au/~jenster
East Timor Studies www.etstudies-aust.org
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