Oral Literature, Gender, and Precedence in East Timor: Metaphysics in Narrative By David Hicks. Copenhagen: Nias Press, 2020. 190 pp. ISBN: 9788776942755 - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue (Compte-Rendu De Lecture) Journal of Asian Studies Année : 2022

Oral Literature, Gender, and Precedence in East Timor: Metaphysics in Narrative By David Hicks. Copenhagen: Nias Press, 2020. 190 pp. ISBN: 9788776942755

Dana Rappoport

Résumé

This book is a collection of seven papers by David Hicks (1939), published over the last twenty years a leading authority on the anthropology of Timor. Through a systematic analysis of narratives, it brings to light topics specific to the eastern half of the island of Timor. Introduced and closed by two short texts (introduction and epilogue), the papers are arranged chronologically according to publication dates, from 1996 to 2017. They refer to materials that are sometimes more than forty years old. Each is based on a narrative analysis. And from all of them, Hicks seeks to track down recurrences to understand patterns important to various groups in Timor-Leste. The subtitle of the book is promising: the author announces that he is going to explore the metaphysics of oral tradition narratives. Short narratives, despite their simple appearance, reveal through structural analysis 'ontological matters and themes of metaphysical significance' (p. 4). Hicks's papers gathered in the book are: 'The Ema Lisan', 'Gender and the barlaque', 'Making the king divine: a case study in ritual regicide from Timor', 'Divine kings and younger brothers', 'Younger brothers and fishing hook on Timor: Reassessing Mauss on hierarchy and divinity', 'Impaling spirit: Three categories of ontological domain in Eastern Indonesia', 'Exchange, water, and motif in an etic genre of narrative'. It is indeed a good idea to bring together thought that is ordered but scattered over time due to the demands of the scholar's life. A short Tetun-language glossary opens the book. (Without explanation, Hicks uses the Portuguese colonial spelling, Tetum, for the language and ethnic group that are now generally spelled Tetun.) Bibliographical references are found at the end of each chapter. The prose of the book is clear and concise. Eight plates are published in the book, 7 of them in colour in the first article 'The Ema Lisan'.
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hal-03885252 , version 1 (19-12-2022)

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Dana Rappoport. Oral Literature, Gender, and Precedence in East Timor: Metaphysics in Narrative By David Hicks. Copenhagen: Nias Press, 2020. 190 pp. ISBN: 9788776942755. Journal of Asian Studies, 2022, 81 (2), pp.433 - 434. ⟨10.1017/S0021911822000407⟩. ⟨hal-03885252⟩
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