Abstract

SILVA, Kelly. Kultura: Local Governance Complexes in State Formation in Timor-Leste. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais [online]. 2014, n.104, pp.123-150. ISSN 2182-7435.  https://doi.org/10.4000/rccs.5727.

This paper discusses the ways in which the Timorese state has dealt with elements of local governance complexes called kultura. Based on the analysis of recent uses of tara bandu and the organizational dynamics of local power, the text argues that the way in which aspects of local governance complexes have been recognized and incorporated have turned them into means for pacifying, integrating and monopolizing power. At the same time, kultura is used to transpose and internalize modern practices and projects of social organization and subjectivation. The paper discusses the criticism levelled at the politicization of local elections as an expression of agency and resistance on the part of sectors of the rural populations to projects of political co-optation of their social reproduction dynamics by the Díli-based national elites.

Keywords : culture; governance; local power; State-building; tara bandu; Timor-Leste.

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