The “Ethno-Political Multiple”: Colonial Investigations of Indigenous Polities in East Timor

Roque, Ricardo

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Year:: 2022
Contributor:: Roque, Ricardo (author)
Genre:: articles
Subject:: Timor-Leste; Southeast Asia; Ethnology; History, Modern > Historiography; Indigenous peoples > Politics and government; Portugal > Colonies > Asia; Colonies > Law and legislation; Colonial influence
Extent:: pp. 67-98
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26300/9hft-yd24

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Abstract:: This article analyzes colonial investigations of the indigenous polities designated as reinos (kingdoms) in East Timor during the long nineteenth century. Effective governance of the reinos was paramount to the colonial state. Accordingly, they became a focus of the intellectual activities of Portuguese officials and administrators. The article examines the knowledge forms—enumerative, historiographic, and ethnographic—used to study and manage these diverse polities as an “ethno-political multiple”; that is, the colonial notion according to which the indigenous socio-political world was conceived of, investigated, and acted upon as a plural reality, simultaneously one and multiple.; Este artigo analisa as investigações coloniais dos regimes sociopolíticos indígenas designados por reinos em Timor-Leste durante o longo século XIX. Governar os reinos era importante para o Estado colonial neste período. Por conseguinte, os reinos tornaram-se um foco das atividades intelectuais dos oficiais e administradores portugueses. Examinam-se os saberes coloniais – enumerativo; historiográfico; e etnográfico – orientados para o estudo e governo dos diversos reinos enquanto um ‘múltiplo etno-político’. Isto é: a noção colonial segundo a qual o universo sociopolítico indígena era concebido, investigado, e intervencionado como sendo uma realidade plural, simultaneamente una e múltipla.

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Citation

Roque, Ricardo, "The “Ethno-Political Multiple”: Colonial Investigations of Indigenous Polities in East Timor" (2022). e-Journal of Portuguese History. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.26300/9hft-yd24

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e-Journal of Portuguese History Vol. 20, no. 1

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e-Journal of Portuguese History

The e-Journal of Portuguese History (e-JPH) (ISSN: 1645-6432) is an international peer-reviewed scholarly journal with the objective of providing publication of work on historical subjects, especially those concerning themes and topics of Portuguese history analyzed in a comparative perspective. It …

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