A note on language Acknowledgements Table of Contents Chapter 1: Frontiers imagined, frontiers observed A short of history of a small country Life between lines: an outline of Oecussi The kase, the meto, and the threefold division of indigenous life in Oecussi Urban highlanders: movement and authority in Oecussi Encounter. Change. Experience Theories of encounter Theories of change Theories of experience Encountering Oecussi: serendipity and the social imperative Chapter 1 works cited Chapter 2: Body and belief in Timor-Leste His name was Octobian Oki The dual utility of ritual in urban Timor Spirits, somatic experience, and the limits of belief Jake's story: Atauro Jake's story: Oecussi Land as life in Timor-Leste - the embodiment of knowing Chapter 2 works cited Chapter 3: The ruin and return of Markus Sulu Precedence and the modern pegawai The Sulu, their supplicants, and the shame of Markus 'All Timor knew about the Sulu' Rain and money: meto tales as a way of controlling kase fortunes Conclusion Chapter 3 works cited Chapter 4: Angry spirits in the special economic zone ZEESM - Timor's special economic zone High modernism Oecussi's indigenous political/spiritual system Growing food and relationships: Meto land practices Affect, angry spirits, and resistance in Oecussi Illness, anxiety, and affect in an inspirited land Conclusion Chapter 4 works cited Chapter 5: Stones, saints and the 'Sacred Family' Religion in Oecussi: the concept of le'u, the coming of the Catholic and the influence of the Indonesian state 'Heat', healing, and the meto in Oecussi 'Strangeness', Mr. Bean and meto healing in 2015 The book of Dan. The door in the tree Stones that look like saints Healing and the Sacred Family Conclusion Chapter 5 works cited Chapter 6: Meto kingship and environmental governance Forests, failed states, and the local as a way of getting by Jose and forest: personal ecologies of governance in the 21st century Cloaking kingship - the Besi and the consolations of a failing state The constraining - and enabling - effect of meto perspectives on kase law Conclusion Chapter 6 works cited Chapter 7: Ritual speech and education in Kutete Eskola Lalohan Ritual speech in Oecussi Children of the charcoal, children of the pencil Conclusion Chapter 7 works cited Concluding thoughts: encounter, change, experience An animating interior: the meto and economic development Seeming like a state Lives in motion: the meto as movement in a global age Concluding thoughts: works cited Selected Glossary Bibliography Index.