TY - JOUR
T1 - Negotiating Tradition and Nation: Mediations and Mediators in the Making of Urban Timor-Leste
AU - Silva (da Silva), Kelly
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - In discussing marriage negotiations, this article analyses certain mediations and mediators that make up the dialectics of modernisation among contemporary urban middle-class elites in Timor-Leste. It brings to the fore the way particular Christian values are strategically used to reproduce, change or even enhance people's agency regarding customary practices, and to circumscribe the marriage exchanges to the gift regime. Attitudes about fulfilling customary obligations vary, for they are correlated to the distinct government practices from which they derive. The social profile of brokers and the sources of their legitimacy to perform marriage negotiations are also discussed. Finally, these negotiations are analysed against the backdrop of contemporary arguments about the syncretic or anti-syncretic character of some social experiences in Timor-Leste.
AB - In discussing marriage negotiations, this article analyses certain mediations and mediators that make up the dialectics of modernisation among contemporary urban middle-class elites in Timor-Leste. It brings to the fore the way particular Christian values are strategically used to reproduce, change or even enhance people's agency regarding customary practices, and to circumscribe the marriage exchanges to the gift regime. Attitudes about fulfilling customary obligations vary, for they are correlated to the distinct government practices from which they derive. The social profile of brokers and the sources of their legitimacy to perform marriage negotiations are also discussed. Finally, these negotiations are analysed against the backdrop of contemporary arguments about the syncretic or anti-syncretic character of some social experiences in Timor-Leste.
U2 - 10.1080/14442213.2013.821155
DO - 10.1080/14442213.2013.821155
M3 - Article
VL - 14
SP - 455
EP - 470
JO - The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology
JF - The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology
IS - 5
ER -