Words of the ancestors: disembodied knowledge and secrecy in E ast T imor

By examining processes of revealing and concealing ancestral ‘words’, this article analyses the connection between E ast T imorese knowledge practices and status competition. The point of departure is a tension between the assertion by eminent ritual speakers in the Idaté‐speaking village of F unar of the need to discover the most truthful ‘trunk’ knowledge, and the simultaneous and continual concealment of what this ‘trunk’ may consist of. The article explores the discursive practices that sustain the notion that knowledge exists as an immutable essence outside of history, and the difficulty of maintaining this notion given dramatic historical events in E ast T imor in recent decades. Whereas secrecy and concealment are key strategies of dealing with unrelenting contestations over the ownership and content of ‘trunk’ words, a ritual speaker's attempt to deny the interrelational aspect of knowledge is undermined by the need for others to recognize him as its rightful guardian.